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IS 

AN  I  > 

EARNEST   APPEAL 

TO    THE 

FREE  CHURCH  OF  SCOTLAND 

O^    THE   SUBJECTS    OF    ITS 

ECONOMICS. 


REt.  THOMAS^CHALMERS,  D.  D. 

Piincipal  and  Professor  of  Divinity  in  the  New  College,  Edinburgh,  and  Corresponding 
Member  of  ihe  Rojal  Institute  of  France. 


WITH  AN  INTRODUCTION 


BV    THE    AMERICAN   EDITOR. 


FIRST  AMERICAN  FROM  THE  SECOND  EDINBURGH  EDITION. 


PHILADELPHIA: 

PRESBYTERIAN  BOARD  OF  PUBLICATION. 

1847. 


CONTENTS. 


Page 

Introduction  to  the  American  Edition, 5 

Preface, 15 

Original  Preface, 17 

Economics  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 

Section  I.  On  the  Contributions  for  the  Support  of  the  Free  Church,.  •  •  19 

II.  On  the  Financial  Committee,  27 

III.  IV.  On  the  Distribution  of  the  Sustentation  Fund 31 

V.  On  Church  Extension, 41 

VI.  General  View  of  the  Schemes  and  Objects  of  the  Church, 44 

VII.  General  Considerations, 47 

Affendix. 

No.  I.  On  the  Importance  op  the  Free  Church  Ministers  giving  their 
Testimony  and  their  Countenance  in  behalf  of  the  Associa- 
tion. See.  I.  §  2 49 

II.  On  the  Possibility  of  supporting  a  Church,  even  of  National 
Magnitude  and  Extent,  by  the  Contributions  of  the  Middle 
and  Lower  Classes,  Stc.  I.  §  5, ^ 50 

III.  On  the  Offerings  of  the  Common  People,  Sec.  I.  §  6 52 

IV.  The  Stability  of  our  Means  lies  more  in  the  Smaller  Contri- 

butions OF  the  many,  than  in  the  Larger  Contributions  of 

the  few.  Sec.  I.  §  8, 53 

V.  On  certain  requisite  Modifications  by  which  our  present  Sys- 
tem OF  AN  equal  Dividend  might  be  improved.  Sec.  III.  and 

IV.,  §2 54 

VI.  On  the  Character  and  Prospects  of  a  Church  indifferent  to 
the  Moral  and  Religious  State  of  the  Outfield  Popula- 
tion. Sec.  III.  and  IV.,  §  7, 56 

VII.  On  Scales  of  Distribution.  Sec.  III.  and  IV.,  §  15, 56 

VIII.  Fear  lest  the  Work  of  Church  Extension  should  be  misman 

aged  or  neglected, 

IX,  On  the  Prospects  of  Voluntaryis.m    Sec  VII.  §  2 ...    •  •     61 

X.  Conclusion — The  Author's  View  of  what  should  be  the  State 
of  the   Church's  outward   Business  for   the  following 


59 


twelvemonth, 


62 


ADYEETISEMENT. 


The  Board  of  Publication  believe  that  tliey  are  performing 
an  important  service  for  tlie  Pre'sbyterian  Clmrcli  in  re-pub 
lisliing  this  pamphlet.  The  topics  Dr.  Chalmers  here  dis- 
cusses with  his  characteristic  ability  and  energy,  are,  mutatis 
mutandis^  of  no  less  moment  to  our  Church  than  they  are  to 
the  Free  Church  of  Scotland.  This  will  be  sufficiently  evi- 
dent to  every  candid  reader  of  the  able  and  interesting  Intro- 
duction prefixed  to  the  present  edition. 

A  copy  of  the  pamphlet  will  be  sent,  through  the  liberality 
of  a  friend,  to  each  of  the  ministers  in  our  connexion.  The 
Board  are  unwilling  to  believe  that  such  seed  is  to  be  scat- 
tered through  the  Church  in  vain.  They  are  convinced  that 
♦the  subjects  here  presented,  demand  the  most  serious  atten- 
tion of  our  ministers  and  people,  and  that  they  should  be  dis- 
cussed until  some  measures  shall  be  devised  and  adopted  at 
once  to  augment  the  liberality,  zeal,  and  efficiency  of  our 
Church,  and  to  promote  the  comfort  and  usefulness  of  her 
ministers. 

The  manaofement  of  the  Economics  of  the  Church  is 
vested  in  its  Judicatories.  With  their  functions  this  Board 
has  no  wish  to  interfere.  It  is  not  its  province  even  to  sug- 
gest specific  modifications  of  existing  plans.  Its  office  sim- 
ply is  to  diffuse  light,  leaving  it  to  the  Church  herself,  under 


ADVERTISEMENT. 


the  guidance  of  God's  Providence   and  Spirit,  to  use  the 
light  thus  disseminated  as  she  may  see  fit. 

It  is  taken  for  granted  that  many  of  those  into  whose 
hands  this  Appeal  may  fall,  will  be  disposed  to  examine 
its  facts  and  reasonings  in  their  application  to  our  own 
affairs,  and  to  lay  their  views  before  the  churches.  If  in 
any  instances  individuals  should  choose  to  send  their  com- 
munications to  this  Board,  the  Board  will  with  pleasure 
receive  them,  and  dispose  of  them  in  such  a  manner  as  may 
in  their  judgment  be  best  adapted  to  promote  the  ends  con- 
templated in  the  circulation  of  this  pamphlet. 


INTRODUCTION 


TO    THE 


AMERICAN    EDITION 


The  disruption  of  the  Ciiurcli  of  Scotland,  the  simultaneous  secession 
of  four  hundred  and  seventy  of  her  ministers,  and  of  a  still  larger  pro- 
portion of  her  members;  the  sacrifice  by  the  clergy  of  an  abundant 
and  secure  income;  the  cheerful  assumption  by  the  people  of  the  bur- 
den of  sustaining  their  own  Church,  and  of  creating  all  the  necessary 
appliances  for  that  purpose,  presented  an  example  of  fidelity,  of 
self-denial,  and  of  energy,  which  has  few  parallels  in  history.  This 
spectacle  has  fixed  the  attention  of  the  Protestant  world,  and  is 
exerting  an  influence,  the  results  of  which  it  is  difficult  to  foresee  or 
estimate. 

When  the  Free  Church  withdrew  from  the  Establishment,  it  had. 
every  thing  to  do,  and  to  do  at  once.  1.  Churches  were  to  be  erected 
in  every  parish.  2.  Provision  was  to  be  made  for  the  support  of  the 
ministry.  3.  All  the  missionary  and  other  benevolent  operations  of 
the  Church  were  to  be  taken  up  and  carried  on,  4.  Parochial 
schools  were  to  be  established.  5.  Manses  were  to  be  provided  for 
the  pastors.     6.  A  college  was  to  be  organized  and  sustained. 

Some  of  these  objects  demanded  a  strenuous  effort  once  for  all, 
and  they  were  taken  up  and  disposed  of  in  order.  First,  collections 
were  made  for  the  building  of  churches.  This  work  was  prosecuted 
with  so  much  vigour  that  within  three  years  and  a  half  after  the  dis- 
ruption not  less  than  £400,000  sterling,  or  ^1,800,000  have  been 
expended  in  erecting  from  five  to  seven  hundred  churches.  Then 
^250,000  were  raised  for  parochial  schools.  Then,  in  the  space  of 
eight  months,  ^500,000  were  collected  for  building  manses.  Then, 
or  even  before,  ^100,000  were  obtained  for  a  college,  designed  prin- 
cipally as  a  theological  seminary. 
2 


6  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

Important  as  were  these  several  objects,  they  were  still  secondary 
to  those  which  made  a  permanent  demand  on  the  Cinirch.  Of  these 
tlie  most  pressing  was  the  support  of  the  ministry.  The  principle 
adopted  was,  that  every  minister  who  left  the  Establishment,  should 
receive  an  equal  sum  from  a  common  fund,  which  sum  the  congre- 
gation to  which  he  ministered  might  increase  by  voluntary  contribu- 
tions, at  discretion.  In  some  places  the  amount  received  from  the 
common  fund  would  be  adequate  to  the  support  of  the  pastor;  in 
other  places  it  would  be  entirely  insufficient.  Every  congregation, 
therefore,  after  contributing  to  the  general  fund,  was  left  at  liberty  to 
do  what  they  saw  fit  for  the  support  of  their  own  minister.  To  carry 
out  this  plan,  associations  were  organized  in  every  parish.  The 
business  of  these  associations  is  to  make  collections  for  the  sustenta- 
lion  fund.  This  is  done  by  districting  the  parish,  and  appointing  a 
collector  in  each  district,  whose  duty  it  is  to  apply  to  every  member 
within  his  bounds  for  his  weekly  or  monthly  contribution.  The  pro- 
ceeds of  these  collections  are  remitted  to  Edinburgh,  and  twice  a 
year  a  dividend  is  declared.  To  supplement  these  salaries,  collec- 
tions are  made  every  Sabbath  at  the  door  of  the  churches,  the  pro- 
ceeds of  which  are  given  to  the  pastor.  The  result  has  been  that 
every  pastor  has  received  from  the  general  fund  a  salary  varying 
from  £100,  to  £140. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  following  pamphlet,  that  Dr.  Chalmers  is 
alarmed  at  the  operation  of  this  plan  of  equal  distribution,  which  he 
says  fosters  the  spirit  of  giving  as  little,  and  getting  as  much  as  pos- 
sible. He  insists  strenuously  that  the  rule  should  be  adopted  of  the 
congregations  •'  getting  as  they  give."  One  proposition  is,  that 
every  pastor  shall  receive  from  the  sustentation  fund,  one  and  a  half 
limes  as  much  as  his  congregational  association  contributes  to  that 
fund.  If  the  association  contributes  £50,  the  pastor  receives  £75; 
if  it  contributes  £60,  he  receives  £90;  and  so  on  until  the  stipend 
amounts  to  £150,  beyond  which  nothing  is  to  be  given  from  the 
general  fund.  The  reasons  for  this  modification  will  be  found  in  the 
pamphlet. 

After  providing  for  the  support  of  her  own  ministers,  the  next 
most  pressing  duty  of  the  Free  Church,  was  the  prosecution  of  her 
benevolent  operations.  As  all  the  missionaries  connected  with  the 
Established  Church,  took  part  with  the  seceding  portion,  on  that  por- 
tion was  devolved  at  once  the  burden  of  sustaining  all  the  enterprises 
in  which  the  v/hole  Church  had  been  engaged.  These  benevolent 
operations  are  divided  into  several  departments,  called  schemes,  each 
having  its  own  committee  of  superintendence  and  management. 
These  are,  Educatiou,  Foreign  Missions,  Domestic  Missions,  Conver- 
sion of  the  Jews,  Colonial  Churches.  The  general  plan  of  raising 
funds  for  these  several  schemes,  is  to  assign  a  particular  day  lor  each, 
on  which  the  collection  is  to  be  made  simultaneously  throughout  the 
whole  Cliurch.  The  plan  or  mode  of  making  this  collection  seems 
to  be  left  to  the  discretion  of  each  congregation.  There  is  a  schedule 
in  use  in  some  congregations,  which  seems  so  simple  and  so  well 
adapted  to  the  purpose,  that  it  may  without  impropriety  be  transfer- 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION.  7- 

red  from  Appendix  No  II.  to  this  place,  to  render  it  more  prominent 
as  a  model. 


Rates  of  Contribntiou  to  the 


Fund. 


SCALE. 

PER  WEEK. 

PER 

MONTH. 

PER  QUARTER. 

6. 

d. 

£ 

S. 

d. 

£ 

s. 

d. 

Rale,  No.    1 

» 

Rate,  No.   2 .    . . 

0 

1 

0 

0 

4 

0 

1 

0 

Rate,  No.    3 

0 

n 

0 

0 

6 

0 

1 

G 

Rate,  No.    4   ... 

0 

2 

0 

0 

8 

0 

2 

0 

Rate,  No.    5 . . . . 

0 

3 

0 

1 

0 

0 

3 

0 

Rate,  No.    6   ... 

0 

6 

0 

2 

0 

0 

6 

0 

Rate,  No.    7.... 

1 

0 

0 

4 

0 

0 

12 

0 

Rate,  No.    8.... 

2 

0 

0 

8 

0 

1 

4 

0 

Rate,  No.    0 

2 

6 

0 

10 

0 

1 

10 

0 

Rate,  No.  10.... 

3 

6 

0 

14 

0 

2 

2 

0 

Rate,  No.  11.... 

5 

0 

1 

0 

0 

3 

0 

0 

Rate,  No.  12.... 

* 

On  considering  the  above  rates,  I  agree  to  give  to  the the  sum  specified  in 

Rate  No.  — ,  for  the  year  commencing  at  Martinmas,  1844,  and  request  the  Deacon  or 
Collector  to  call  for  it  each (Signature) 

*  Rate  No.  1  is  left  blank,  to  suit  parties  who  may  find  that  even  the  Rate,  No.  2  is 
above  their  ability;  and  Rate  No.  12  is  also  left  blank,  to  suit  parties  whose  circum- 
stances may  enable  them  to  give  a  higher  Rate  than  any  put  down  in  the  scale.  Some 
members  of  the  Free  Church  also  give  .£1  a  week,  some  £2,  some  £4,  and  a  few  even 
more,  to  the fund. 


In  proof  of  the  efficiency  of  these  plans  and  of  the  energy  with 
which  they  are  prosecuted,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  the  Free  Church 
has  raised  in  three  years  a  million  sterling,  by  annual  contributions 
of  upward  of  ^6300,000.  It  assumed  at  birth  all  the  functions  and 
responsibilities  of  a  mature  establishment.  Six  and  thirty  months 
have  sufficed  to  form  a  society  with  all  the  appliances  of  self-support, 
instruction,  and  extension.  A  body  whose  existence  dates  no  further 
back  than  1S43,  pays  ^672,000  to  its  appointed  ministers,  provides 
for  its  widows  and  orphans,  expends  £9000  a  year  on  its  home  mis- 
sions, and  twice  as  much  in  building  churches.  It  has  a  college  with 
scholarships  for  poor  students,  with  professors  and  tutors  receiving 
salaries  amounting  to  £4000  a  year.  It  has  its  normal  and  general 
schools,  probationers,  catechists  and  travellers.  It  has  six  missions 
in  India,  six  stations  in  Eastern  Europe  and  Asia  Minor  for  the  con- 
version of  the  Jews.  It  has  made  grants  amounting  to  near  £2000 
to  the  Evangelical  Societies  of  Switzerland  and  Belgium,  and  the 
Bible  Society  of  Toulouse  and  the  Gustavus  Adolphus  Society  of 
Germany.  It  provides  for  the  temporary  support  of  Hebrew  con- 
verts in  Hungary,  and  for  Hindoo  converts  in  Calcutta;  supports 
missionaries  with  insured  lives  in  South  Africa,  and  has  despatched 
a  philosophical  apparatus  to  the  Great  Fish  River.* 

It  is  obvious  that  other  churches  must  have  much  to  learn  from 
such  a  body.  Our  own  church  from  its  various  points  of  contact 
and  affinity  with  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  may  especially  be 

*  Condensed  from  no  very  friendly  article  in  the  London  Times,  September,  1846. 


g  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

expected  to  take  an  interest  in  her  operations,  and  to  be  disposed  to 
profit  by  her  example.  We  have  the  same  standards  of  doctrine  and 
order.  Our  people  have  been  trained  under  the  same  system  of 
truth.  We  too  are  a  self-sustaining  and  self-extending  church.  We 
have  the  same  kind  of  work  to  perform  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
What,  therefore,  a  man  so  eminent  and  so  long  experienced  in  prac- 
tical matters,  as  Dr.  Chalmers,  has  to  say  in  his  parting  counsels  to 
the  Free  Church,  may  well  be  expected  to  find  attentive  readers  in 
this  country.  The  republication  of  this  pamphlet  is  to  be  referred 
to  the  conviction,  that  the  principles  here  advocated  are  the  very  prin- 
ciples upon  which  we  must  act,  if  we  would  in  any  measure  fulfil 
our  destiny,  or  emulate  the  usefulness  of  a  body  much  smaller  in 
numbers,  and  much  more  limited  in  its  resources  than  our  own. 
There  is  indeed  much  in  this  pamphlet  which  has  reference  to  the 
peculiar  circumstances  of  the  Free  Church,  but  there  is  also  much 
which  as  intimately  concerns  us  as  it  does  them. 

I.  There  are  certain  general  principles  which  pervade  all  the  prac- 
tical counsels  of  Dr.  Chalmers,  as  they  do  the  whole  Bible.  One  is 
the  universal  brotherhood  of  believers;  another  is,  the  obligation 
which  lies  on  every  individual  and  every  community  to  meet  as  far 
as  possible,  its  own  necessities.  From  the  one  principle  flows  the 
duty  of  bearing  one  another's  burdens,  of  making  the  abundance  of 
one  a  supply  for  the  deficiency  of  others.  2  Cor.  viii.  13,  14.  From 
the  other,  flows  the  duty  of  self-support  as  far  as  it  may  be  practica- 
ble. It  is  on  the  due  adjustment  of  these  two  principles,  the  proper 
relative  discharge  of  these  two  duties,  that  the  well  being  of  every 
community  depends.  If,  on  the  one  hand,  the  rich  keep  their  abun- 
dance to  themselves,  multitudes  of  their  brethren  must  perish.  If, 
on  the  other,  the  poor  rely  upon  the  rich,  without  adequate  exertion 
on  their  own  part,  the  rich  will  soon  weary  of  a  liberality  which 
they  see  to  be  productive  of  evil,  or  resources  which  ought  to  flow 
out  to  those  who  really  need  them,  will  be  absorbed  by  those  who 
would  be  better  without  such  assistance. 

Dr.  Chalmers  makes  a  twofold  application  of  these  principles. 
First,  he  shows  the  impropriety  of  the  poorer  members  of  the  Church 
devolving  the  duty  of  giving  on  their  richer  brethren.  This  is  un- 
reasonable, because  it  is  as  much  the  duty  of  the  poor  to  give  accord- 
ing to  their  ability,  as  it  is  that  of  the  rich  to  give  accordmg  to  theirs. 
It  is  unwise,  because  the  numerous  small  contributions  of  the  poor, 
in  all  societies,  amount  to  more  than  the  large  contributions  of  the 
rich.  It  is  injurious,  because  it  is  doing  the  poor  a  great  good,  it  is 
cultivating  self-respect,  self-denial,  gratitude  to  God,  and  love  to  men, 
to  call  upon  them  to  take  their  part  in  the  great  work  of  Christian 
benevolence.  In  the  second  place,  he  applies  these  principles  to  con- 
gregations. There  always  will  be  aid-giving  and  aid-receiving 
churches.  There  is  a  tendency  in  the  one  class  to  be  backward  or 
parsimonious  in  giving;  and  a  tendency  in  the  other,  to  rely  upon 
aid  from  abroad,  without  making  due  exertion  at  iiome.  lioth  these 
evils  are  to  be  counteracted;  the  one  by  impressing  on  the  stronger 
churches  the  duty  of  aiding  their  brethren;  and  the  other,  by  urging 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION.  9 

on  weak  churches  the  duty  of  doing  all  they  can  for  themselves. 
Hence  the  earnestness  with  which  our  author  argues  that  all  the 
benevolent  operations  of  the  Church  should  be  conducted  with  the 
aim  of  increasing  the  number  of  the  aid-giving,  and  of  decreasing 
that  of  the  aid-receiving  congregations;  making  it  the  interest  of  the 
latter  to  assist  themselves,  by  proportioning  the  amount  received 
from  abroad,  to  the  sum  raised  at  home. 

There  is  another  general  principle  on  which  Dr,  Chalmers  very 
properly  insists,  and  that  is,  the  perfect  consistency  of  real  unity  in 
the  Church,  both  as  to  feeling  and  operation,  without  uniformity. 
All  may  be  united,  though  all  are  not  alike.  There  may  be  a  gene- 
ral building  fund,  though  all  the  churches  are  not  of  the  same  pat- 
tern. There  may  be  a  general  fund  for  sustaining  the  ministry, 
though  all  salaries  are  not  equal.  It  seems  in  Scotland  many  sup- 
pose that  unity  implies  uniformity,  and  parity  equality,  not  only  in 
constitutional  rights,  but  in  external  circumstances.  Hence  the  at- 
tempt was  made  to  prohibit  the  richer  congregations  building  churches 
more  expensive  than  a  prescribed  model;  and  to  do  away  with  the 
right  of  a  congregation  adding  any  thing  to  the  salary  its  pastor 
received  from  the  common  fund.  This  our  author  argues  betrays 
great  ignorance  of  human  nature.  The  money  spent  in  ornament- 
ing a  church,  is  not  money  taken  from  the  building  fund,  but  money 
which  would  never  have  found  its  way  into  the  treasury  of  the 
Church.  Money  given  to  supplement  the  salary  of  a  pastor,  is  not 
so  much  subtracted  from  the  sustentation  fund,  but  so  much  added  to 
the  comfort  of  the  pastor,  which  would  not  otherwise  have  been 
given.  In  some  congregations  it  was  the  custom  to  charge  pew- 
rents.  These  in  some  cases  were  abolished,  under  the  impression 
that  the  amount  paid  as  rent,  would  be  added  in  the  form  of  increased 
contributions  to  the  sustentation  fund.  The  result  was,  the  rents 
were  lost,  but  the  sustentation  fund  was  not  increased.  The  reason 
is  plain.  The  rents  were  paid  from  one  motive,  and  contributions 
were  made  to  the  sustentation  fund  from  another  motive.  Taking 
off  the  pew  rent  had  no  more  tendency  to  increase  the  contributions 
of  the  congregation,  than  a  fall  in  the  rent  of  houses.  There  is 
surely  wisdom  in  all  this,  and  it  shows  that  the  attempt  to  reduce 
every  thing  to  a  dead  level  in  the  Church  or  out  of  it,  is  just  as  im- 
practicable as  to  reduce  all  men  to  the  same  age,  or  to  one  uniform 
stature.  There  must  be  free  scope  left  to  the  people  to  indulge  all 
right  feelings,  while  they  are  made  to  bear  in  mind  that  the  Church 
is  one,  so  that  if  one  member  sutler,  all  the  members  should  suffer 
with  it. 

II.  The  principles  inculcated  in  this  pamphlet  bearing  on  the  best 
method  of  raising  funds,  will  be  found  as  applicable  to  us,  as  to  the 
Church  in  Scotland.  The  most  obvious  and  important  of  these  prin- 
ciples are  the  following: 

1.  The  necessity  of  thorough  organization.  Every  portion  of  the 
territory  of  the  Free  Church  is  brought  within  the  limits  of  some 
association.  These  associations,  organized  by  church  officers,  divide 
every  parish  into  geographical  districts,  in  each  of  which  a  collector 


*10_  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

is  appointed,  whose  duty  it  is  to  go  over  the  ground  at  stated  periods. 
This  is  so  essential  a  part  of  the  whole  system,  that  Dr.  Chalmers 
asks,  Where  should  we  have  been,  but  for  our  associations? 

2.  The  necessity  of  personal  application  to  every  member  of  the 
Church.  Reliance  is  not  placed  on  general  collections  in  the  Church. 
The  name  of  every  member  in  each  district  is  obtained ;  and  the 
question  is  deliberately  laid  before  his  heart  and  conscience,  What 
can  you  give  to  promote  the  cause  of  Christ? 

3.  The  necessity  of  ministerial  supervision  and  agency.  Dr.  Chal- 
mers records  it  as  the  result  of  his  experience,  that  wherever  the  pas- 
tor takes  an  interest  in  these  associations,  and  exerts  himself  to 
secure  their  efficiency,  there  the  work  is  done;  and  he  avows  it  as 
his  conviction  that  wherever  the  plan  has  failed  or  languished,  there 
the  fault  lies  with  the  minister,  and  not  with  the  people. 

4.  The  necessity  of  a  central  committee  to  give  uniformity  and 
efficiency  to  the  financial  operations  of  the  Church.  This  com- 
mittee should  consist  mainly  of  men  of  business,  that  is,  of  men 
familiar  with  accounts,  rather  than  of  professional  men.  With  this 
must  be  connected  a  system  of  paid  agencies.  "  There  is,"  says  Dr. 
Chalmers,  "  a  prejudice,  I  had  almost  said  a  low-minded  suspicion, 
on  this  subject,  most  grievously  adverse  to  the  enlargement  of  the 
church's  resources  and  means.  The  sum  of  £2000  or  £3000  a  year, 
and  perhaps  more,  rightly  expended  on  the  right  men,  would  be  re- 
munerated more  than  fifty  fold  by  the  impulse  thus  given  to  the 
mechanism  of  our  associations."  If  this  is  the  testimony  of  expe- 
rience in  such  a  country  as  Scotland,  any  part  of  which  can  be 
reached  in  two  days  from  the  centre  of  operations,  how  much  more 
necessary  must  be  an  efficient  agency  in  our  country,  where  every 
thing  is  so  dispersed,  that  it  is  impossible  thus  easily  to  transmit  an 
impulse  or  to  secure  co-operation. 

III.  The  support  of  the  clergy.  This  is  one  of  the  most  difficult  and 
complicated  practical  questions  which  can  engage  the  attention  of  the 
church.  In  this  country  we  seem  to  think  we  have  solved  the  prob- 
lem, by  making  every  pastor  dependent  on  his  own  immediate 
flock.  This  however  is  a  very  questionable  matter.  Our  system, 
though  it  has  its  advantages,  has  its  serious  disadvantages.  A  system 
which  secures  the  exclusive  devotion  of  every  minister  to  his  official 
duties,  is  surely  better  than  one  which  forces  a  large  portion  of  the 
ministry  to  resort  to  some  secular  employment  as  a  means  of  support. 
A  system  which  secures  to  every  man  devoted  to  his  work,  an 
income  adequate  to  his  necessities,  is  certainly  better  than  one  which 
provides  with  lavish  abundance  for  a  few,  and  loaves  the  many  to 
struggle  with  penury.  The  plan  adopted  in  the  Free  Church  has 
these  advantages;  ours  labours  obviously  and  to  a  lamentable  extent 
under  these  disadvantages.  This  pamphlet  brings  up  this  subject. 
It  will  lead  the  reader  to  ask,  whether  nothing  can  be  done  to  correct 
the  evils  under  which  our  system  labours.  This  is  not  the  place  to 
discuss  this  question,  nor  to  follow  out  into  its  details  any  plan  for 
meeting  these  difficulties.  Ikit  as  the  subject  will  suggest  itself  to 
every  reader,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  say  what  follows. 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION.  11 

If  the  church  is  one,  it  is  just  as  much  the  duty  of  our  wealthy 
congregations,  to  see  that  men  preaching  the  gospel  in  Wisconsin  or 
Iowa  are  supported,  as  that  their  own  pastors  are  duly  sustained. 
And  if  the  Lord  has  ordained  that  they  who  preach  the  gospel  should 
live  by  the  gospel, — if  the  principle  that  the  labourer  is  worthy  of  his 
hire,  be  of  general  and  not  of  very  restricted  application,  then  does 
justice  demand  that  every  minister  devoted  to  his  work  should  be 
adequately  supported. 

These  are  the  two  principles,  viz.  the  unity  of  the  church,  and  the 
"divine  right"  (i.  e.  a  right  founded  on  a  divine  ordinance)  of  every 
minister  to  a  support,  on  which  this  whole  subject  rests,  and  according 
to  which  it  ought  to  be  adjusted. 

Nothing  so  chimerical  as  an  equalization  of  salaries  is  of  course 
intended.  This  would  be  both  unjust  and  impracticable.  Unjust, 
because  an  equal  sum  from  a  common  fund  would  be  a  most  unequal 
compensation,  owing  to  the  great  diflerence  of  the  expense  of  living 
in  different  places,  and  to  the  demands  to  which  different  ministers 
are  subject.  It  would  be  impracticable,  because  if  all  ministers 
received  the  same  salary  from  a  common  source,  the  people  would 
still  possess  and  exercise  the  right  of  adding  to  it  what  they  pleased. 
All  that  is  here  asserted  is,  first,  that  every  minister  devoted  to  his 
work  has  a  right  to  an  adequate  support;  and  second,  that  the  obliga- 
tion to  provide  that  support  rests  on  the  whole  church,  and  not 
exclusively  upon  that  portion  of  the  church  to  whom  the  preacher 
ministers. 

If  it  be  asked  how  these  principles  are  to  be  carried  out  so  as  to 
accomplish  the  end  in  view,  it  may  be  answered  that  a  great  good 
will  be  obtained  if  the  principles  themselves  be  recognized  as  just, 
and  the  obligation  to  act  in  obedience  to  them  be  acknowledged. 
The  best  method  of  giving  them  effect  may  well  call  for  the  delibe- 
rate consideration  of  the  wisest  men  of  the  church. 

The  following  suggestions  are  made  in  hopes  of  calling  attention 
to  the  subject,  and  of  ultimately  leading  to  the  adoption  of  some  plan 
which  may  meet  with  general  approbation. 

1.  Let  the  principle  be  adopted,  that  every  man  who  devotes  him- 
self to  the  work  of  the  ministry,  shall  receive  an  adequate  support. 
We  act  on  this  principle  with  regard  to  our  foreign  missionaries,  why 
should  we  not  do  it  with  regard  to  those  who  preach  the  gospel  at 
home? 

2.  Let  the  church  appoint  a  "  Sustentation  Committee,"  to  be 
composed  principally  of  men  of  business,  whose  duty  it  shall  be  to 
raise  funds  for  the  support  of  the  ministry,  and  to  distribute  them 
according  to  rules  to  be  prescribed  by  the  General  Assembly.  This 
committee  ought  perhaps  to  be  estabhshed  in  New  York,  as  the 
business  centre  of  the  country. 

3.  Let  a  maximum  be  fixed,  beyond  which  no  contribution  shall 
be  received  from  the  Sustentation  Fund.  In  the  Free  Church  that 
maximum  is  £150.  If  ^500  be  assumed  as  the  limit  here,  then  it 
may  be  determined  that  no  pastor  who  receives  ^500  or  more  from 
his  congregation,  shall  receive  anything  from  the  Sustentation  Fund. 


li  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION. 

He  and  his  people  would  then  belong  to  the  aid-giving  and  not  to 
the  aid-receiving  class  of  churches. 

4.  All  money  raised  within  the  churches,  connected  with  the  fund 
for  the  support  of  the  ministry,  should  be  remitted  to  the  Sustenta- 
iion  Committee  or  carried  to  its  credit.  If  this  plan  were  adopted 
the  pastors  could  more  freely  urge  their  people  to  give,  than  when 
pleading  for  themselves. 

5.  Let  a  minimum  be  fixed  to  entitle  any  congregation  to  be  taken 
into  connexion  with  the  fund.  The  salary  then  paid  to  the  pastor 
may  be  determined,  according  to  some  regular  scale,  in  proportion  to 
the  amount  received  from  his  congregation.  For  example,  if  a  con- 
gregation contribute  SlOO,  the  pastor's  .salary  may  be  fixed  at  {5400; 
if  the  congregation  contribute  ^200,  the  pastor  may  receive  $500. 
Or  it  may  be  found  best  to  adopt  the  plan  of  fixing  the  pastor's  salary 
at  one  and  a  half  the  sum,  or  at  double  the  sum,  received  from  his 
congregation. 

6.  Those  places  whence  nothing  is  received  for  the  general  fund, 
or  an  amount  less  than  the  sum  determined  as  the  minimum,  must  be 
considered  as  missionary  stations  to  be  supplied  by  young  unmarried 
men,  until  they  are  able  to  contribute  the  amount  necessary  to  enti- 
tle them  to  be  received  on  the  Sustentation  Fund. 

Instead  of  appointing  a  "  Sustentation  Committee,"  it  may  be 
deemed  expedient  to  commit  this  whole  subject  to  the  Board  of  Mis- 
sions, and  to  modify  the  plan  of  that  Board  in  such  a  manner  as  to 
accomplish  the  end  contemplated. 

It  may  be  said  that  any  such  scheme  as  that  above  referred  to, 
would  be  liable  to  great  abuse.  Men  might  be  received  on  the  fund, 
who  were  still  engaged  in  secular  pursuits,  or  were  indolent,  or  inef- 
ficient, or  unacceptable.  This  is  undoubtedly  true.  But  it  is  true 
of  any  conceivable  plan  of  doing  good,  that  it  is  liable  to  be  abused. 
In  carrying  out  such  a  plan,  our  reliance,  under  God,  must  be  on  the 
piety  of  the  men  introduced  into  the  ministry,  the  supervision  of 
the  Presbyteries,  and  on  the  regular  reports  of  the  incumbents  on  the 
fund,  as  to  the  amount  and  results  of  their  labours. 

If  it  be  asked,  where  the  money  is  to  come  from  to  carry  out  such 
a  plan,  it  may  be  asked  in  reply,  Where  does  it  come  from  in 
Scotland?  The  Free  Church  raises  annually  about  S350,000  for  its 
sustentation  fund.  We  are  far  more  numerous,  and  have  far  more 
wealth  than  they.  Our  people  are  as  liberal,  piety  is  the  same  thing 
here,  that  it  is  there,  we  have  as  great  a  work  to  do,  and  as  strong 
motives  for  doing  it  well.  The  great  difterence  lies  in  the  difference 
of  our  plans,  and  consequently  in  the  objects  which  we  present  to 
the  people.  If  you  propose  to  any  congregation  the  support  of  their 
own  pastor,  or  to  send  a  number  of  missionaries  to  the  west,  with  a 
hundred  dollars  each,  they  will  give  accordingly.  But  if  you  pro- 
pose to  them  the  larger  object  of  providing  for  the  adequate  support 
of  every  faithful  minister  in  our  Church,  they  will  awake  to  new 
views,  and  to  larger  conceptions  of  their  duty  and  privileges. 

It  is  not  expected  that  these  suggestions  will  meet  with  general  or 
immediate  acceptance.     They  are  to  be  regarded  as  mere  hints,  to 


INTRODUCTION  TO  THE  AMERICAN  EDITION.  18 

be  modified  indefinitelv,  as  the  wisdom  or  experience  of  the  Church 
may  determine. 

The  following  remarks,  however,  seem  to  deserve  consideration, 
in  favour  of  some  such  plan. 

1.  It  will  be  a  compliance,  on  the  part  of  our  Church,  with  the 
law  of  Christ,  tliat  they  who  preach  the  gospel,  shall  live  by  the 
gospel. 

2.  It  will  enable  our  pastors  to  devote  themselves  to  their  minis- 
terial work,  instead  of  giving,  as  in  a  multitude  of  cases  is  now  una- 
voidable, a  large  portion  of  their  time  to  some  secular  employment, 
for  the  support  of  their  families. 

3.  It  will  in  a  measure  do  away  with  the  undue  and  unjust  dispa- 
rity in  the  salaries  of  our  ministers.  It  has  ever  been  justly  considered 
a  great  reproach  on  the  Church  of  England,  that  while  one  portion  of 
her  clergy  have  the  income  of  princes,  so  large  a  part  of  her  labori- 
ous ministers  have  from  £30  to  £50  a  year. 

4.  As  such  a  plan  presupposes  the  unity  of  the  Church,  and  can 
be  successfully  prosecuted  only  under  the  influence  of  a  recognition 
of  that  unity,  its  adoption  and  successful  prosecution  must  promote 
brotherly  love.  And  if  it  have  that  effect,  the  blessing  of  God  \vi\[ 
descend  upon  us  as  the  dew  on  Hermon. 

5.  The  plan  is  essentially,  (to  borrow  the  language  of  Dr.  Chal- 
mers,) aggressive.  It  presses  the  Church  continually  forward,  sus- 
taining the  gospel  in  places,  where  from  the  fewness,  the  indifference, 
or  poverty  of  the  people  it  could  not  otherwise  be  supported. 

6.  It  leaves  untouched  the  intimate  relation  between  the  pastor 
and  the  people,  and  the  reciprocation  of  benefits  between  them, 
while  the  minister  is  not  made  entirely  dependent  on  his  own  imme- 
diate congregation  for  his  support.  A  large  portion  of  his  salary 
however  must  ever  come  from  them,  and  on  their  confidence  and. 
kindness  he  must  ever  be  dependent  for  many  of  his  comforts. 

There  are  many  other  lessons  besides  those  above  indicated  to  be 
derived  from  this  pamphlet.  But  enough  has  probably  been  said  to 
explain  the  reason  of  its  republication  in  this  country.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  we  fall  short  of  the  example  set  us  by  the  Free  Church 
of  Scotland.  The  principles  on  which  they  act  are  those  on  which 
we  must  act  if  we  would  be  equally  useful  as  a  church.  We  must 
feel  that  we  are  one  body;  that  the  weakest  and  the  strongest  are 
equally  bound  to  do  what  they  can  for  the  common  cause.  We 
must  become  more  systematic  in  our  operations,  and  devise  some 
plan  by  which  personal  application  shall  be  made  to  all  our  members 
for  their  contributions.  Ministers  must  feel  that  the  chief  responsi- 
bility in  every  good  work  devolves  on  them.  They  are  the  leaders 
of  the  flock;  if  they  go  forward  the  people  will  follow. 

While  we  thus  strive  to  awaken  a  livelier  sense  of  brotherhood  in 
the  Church,  and  to  bring  about  a  more  equal  distribution  of  its  re- 
sources, we  must  allow  the  several  parts  to  act  freely  in  their  respec- 
tive spheres.  The  foot  must  not  say,  because  I  am  not  the  hand,  I 
am  not  of  the  body;  neither  must  the  eye  say  to  the  hand,  I  have  no 
need  of  you.   There  is  no  schism  in  the  natural  body ;  neither  is  there 


14  INTRODUCTION  TO  THE    AMERICAN  EDITION. 

any  alienation  of  feeling  in  the  Church,  so  far  as  the  Holy  Ghost 
dwells  in  it.  Indiiference,  therefore,  on  the  part  of  the  strong,  or 
envy  on  the  part  of  the  weak,  is  an  evidence  of  the  absence  of  the 
Spirit,  and  cause  for  alarm  and  humiliation  to  all  conscious  of  such 
infirmities.  We  need,  therefore,  above  all  things,  the  indwelling  of 
the  Holy  Spirit,  to  give  us  wisdom  to  know  how  to  act,  and  to  dis- 
pose and  enable  us  to  act  right. 


PEEEACE. 


The  body  of  this  little  work  was  printed,  but  can  scarcely  be  said  to 
have  been  published,  last  year.  As  it  contains  the  most  matured 
views  of  its  author,  the  fruit  of  much  thought  and  of  some  expe- 
rience, he  is  unwilling  that  it  should  be  altogether  lost.  He  there- 
fore presents  it  anew  to  the  Church,  in  a  form  which  leaves  the  main 
pamphlet  untouched,  but  with  this  peculiarity  in  its  structure,  that 
each  topic  which  required  any  further  enlargement,  or  to  be  repre- 
sented over  again  with  still  greater  earnestness  and  urgency  than 
before,  has  a  distinct  place  assigned  for  it  in  a  little  section  with  its 
own  distinct  title,  which  sections  are  made  to  compose  an  Appendix 
to  the  work.  It  is  to  this  Appendix  that  I  would  invite  the  special 
attention  of  the  reader,  as  containing  a  series  of  final  deliverances 
on  the  matters  which  are  there  successively  taken  up.  I  have,  at  the 
same  time,  to  apologize  for  the  somewhat  absolute  and  aphoristical 
style  in  which  they  are  given  forth,  as  being  more  like  the  sentences 
of  a  judge  who  has  already  got  a  verdict  to  found  upon,  than  the 
pleadings  of  an  advocate  who  has  yet  a  verdict  to  obtain.  The  only 
explanation  which  I  can  give  of  this  peculiarity  is,  that  I  have  already 
pleaded  long  enough,  which  the  reader  will  find  to  his  cost,  were 
he  to  reperuse  the  various  reports  and  other  documents  which  from 
time  to  time  1  have  been  called  upon  to  prepare  on  the  financial 
affairs  of  the  Free  Church. 

This  is  the  last  representation  which  I  mean  to  offer  upon  the  sub- 
ject; and,  such  being  the  case,  it  is  most  natural  that  I  should  feel 
the  importance,  nay,  the  paramount  duty,  of  stating  not  only  the 
truth,  but  the  whole  truth,  however  unpalatable,  if  but  salutary,  or 
needful  and  desirable  to  be  made  known.  There  is  a  sensitive  dread 
among  several  of  our  friends  of  any  thing  like  the  appearance  of 
dissatisfaction  or  differences  amongst  ourselves,  which  really  it  is 
high  time  that  we  should  now  get  the  better  of.  The  Free  Church 
of  Scotland  is  far  too  strong,  too  deeply  rooted  in  the  affections  and 
confidence  of  the  people,  to  be  easily  shaken,  at  least  in  any  of  her 
essential  supports,  by  those  misunderstandings  and  altercations  of 
sentiment  which  are  unavoidable  in  so  large  a  body.  She  is  now 
strong  enough  to  stand  the  blasts  of  controversy,  and  can  afford  to 
be  told,  even  publicly  and  by  proclamation  from  the  house-tops,  of 
her  faults  and  her  errors.  There  ought  to  be  no  hushing  up.  The 
Free  Church  public  of  Scotland  is  far  too  large  to  have  the  benefits 
and  the  wholesome  influences  of  frank  and  open  and  fearless  dis- 
cussion withheld  from  it,  lest  another  Scottish  public,  exterior  to  ours 
and  apart  from  ours,  should  lift  up  their  shout  of  exultation  and 


16  PREFACE. 

augur  our  speedy  downfall,  when  they  observe  that  questions  are 
getting  up  amongst  us,  or  think  we  are  far  from  being  perfectly  at 
one.  It  will  turn  out,  I  trust,  that  the  fears  of  our  friends,  and  the 
triumph  or  liopeful  anticipations  of  our  enemies,  are  alike  groundless. 
It  is  an  old  phenomenon,  and  one  which  the  observation  of  forty 
years  has  now  made  perfectly  familiar  to  us,  that  the  country  breth- 
ren should  look  with  a  vigilance  bordering  somewhat  upon  jealousy 
to  our  more  conspicuous  ecclesiastics  in  the  larger  towns;  and,  in  so 
far  as  they  are  actuated  by  feelings  of  dislike  for  aught  like  the  regi- 
men of  a  metropolitan  cliqueship,do  we  most  thoroughly  sympathize 
with  them.*  But,  on  the  other  hand,  they  too  should  bear  to  be  told 
of  their  short-comings,  else  I  can  look  for  little  toleration  or  compla- 
cency at  their  hands — purposing  as  I  do,  in  the  following  pages,  to 
tell  with  all  sincerity,  though  at  the  same  time  with  the  utmost  affec- 
tion and  good-will,  wherein  it  is  that  I  think  many  of  them  are  defi- 
cient, and  some  of  them,  I  fear,  most  grievously  in  the  wrong.  I 
hope  to  be  forgiven  for  the  plain  speaking  which  occurs  in  some  of 
the  following  passages,  as,  next  to  my  regard  for  the  moral  and 
Christian  good  of  the  people  of  Scotland,  is  the  personal  liking  I 
have  for  their  ministers.  But  open  rebuke  is  better  than  secret  or 
silent  love. 

*  A  thing-,  however,  may  be  very  hateful,  while  it  remains  a  question  in  how  far  the 
thing  is  realized.  The  jealousy  here  spoken  of  may  often  be  as  groundless  as  it  is  some- 
times low-minded.  The  talent  for  public  business,  and  more  esjwcially  for  the  guidance 
of  so  large  a  corporation  as  a  parliament  or  an  ecclesiastical  assembly — itself  an  eccle- 
siastical parliament — this  talent,  we  say,  may  in  itself  constitute  an  obligatory  call  on 
those  who  are  possessed  of  it,  so  as  to  make  it  their  justifiable,  nay,  their  incumbent 
vocation,  to  take  the  influential  and  ostensible  part  which  they  do  in  the  management 
of  our  affairs.  If  the  Church  but  knew  the  fatigue  and  the  sacrifices  of  ease  and  domes- 
tic enjoyment  which  are  endured  by  those  men,  and  the  weight  of  care  which  lies  upon 
their  spirits,  it  would  view  them  as  the  proper  objects  of  gratitude,  nay,  even  of  pity, 
at  the  very  time,  perhaps,  when  they  are  assailed  by  clamours,  and  loaded  till  they  are 
like  to  break  down  with  unreasonable,  and,  it  may  be,  with  envious  complaints. 


OEIGINAL   PEEFACE. 


In*  announcing  my  determination  now  to  retire  from  the  public  busi- 
ness of  the  Free  Church,  I  feel  confident  that  it  will  not  be  ascribed 
to  any  decay  of  affection  for  its  cause.  It  is  not  a  matter  of  choice, 
but  of  physical  necessity.  I  have  neither  the  vigour  nor  alertness  of 
former  days;  and  the  strength  no  longer  remains  with  me,  either  for 
the  debates  of  the  Assembly,  or  for  the  details  of  committees  and  their 
correspondence. 

At  the  last  Assembly  but  one,  during  the  first  days  of  which  I  en- 
joyed a  health  I  never  expect  to  regain,  I  did  a  very  rash  thing.  I 
moved  the  appointment  of  an  extension  committee,  and  accepted  of 
its  convenership.  I  fondly  imagined  the  possibility  of  weathering 
one  twelvemonth  more  of  such  active  service  as  had  long  been 
familiar  to  me;  and  deemed  the  object  I  had  in  view  of  such  special 
importance,  as  to  justify  the  attempt.  A  few  weeks  convinced  me 
of  my  error;  and,  since  the  month  of  August  in  1844,  my  connection 
with  our  financial  affairs  has  been  little  better  than  nominal.  I  can 
still  describe,  however,  what  I  cannot  execute;  and  the  process  which 
I  hoped  to  set  agoing  will  be  laid  before  the  reader  in  the  following 
pages.  Its  accomplishment  by  me  is  now  wholly  out  of  the  ques- 
tion; and,  if  judged  worthy  by  the  Church  of  being  carried  into 
effect,  should  be  devolved  on  younger  and  abler  men. 

I  shall  be  at  all  times  ready  to  offer  my  opinion,  and  to  state  the 
results  of  my  former  experience,  whenever  it  shall  be  required  of  me. 

Egotism  is  painful,  and  more  especially  when  it  relates  to  one's 
constitutional  peculiarities.  Yet  we  are  not  sure  if  it  can  be  deemed 
a  peculiarity,  that  one  should  feel  it  greatly  more  fatiguing  execu- 
tively to  carry  his  object  over  the  adverse  views  and  conceptions  of 
other  men,  than  arguraentatively,  and  by  following  out  his  own  unin- 
terrupted processes  of  thought,  to  set  it  forth  in  a  way  that  might 
best  recommend  it  to  those  of  kindred  understanding  with  himself. 
It  surely  requires  a  far  more  strenuous  effort  to  succeed  in  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  measure,  than  merely  to  advocate  an  opinion,  even 
though  so  advocated  as  to  succeed  in  the  establishment  of  a  principle. 
The  one  achievement  is  a  triumph  often  effected  by  a  leader  in  the 
hall  of  deliberation  or  debate; — the  other  is  an  achievement  that 
might  often  be  effected  by  a  professor  in  his  class-room.  My  prefer- 
ence all  along  has  been  for  the  latter  over  the  former  employment — 
to  operate  on  the  ductile  minds  of  the  young,  rather  than  engage  in 
arduous  conflict  with  my  fellows  on  questions  of  ecclesiastical  right 
or  polity.  Circumstances  have  engaged  me  in  the  more  uncongenial 
work;  and  for  twelve  years  the  duties  of  the  chair  have  been  sadly 
encroached  upon,  throughout  no  less  than  three  successive  warfares — 
those  of  Church  Establishments,  and  Church  Extension,  and,  lastly. 


18  ORIGINAL  PREFACE. 

Church  Independence.  I  do  hope  that  it  will  neither  surprise  nor 
offend  my  brethren  of  the  Free  Church,  that  I  now  resign  a  general 
care  of  the  churches,  for  a  more  special  and  intense  care  of  those  stu- 
dents who  are  to  be  the  Church's  future  guides  and  guardians.  The 
matters  which  I  am  henceforth  to  give  up  have  now  proceeded  so  far, 
that,  without  derangement  or  inconvenience,  they  may  be  left  to  pass 
from  one  hand  and  one  management  to  another.  And,  in  these  circum- 
stances, for  me  to  persevere  any  longer  in  the  work  of  a  committee, 
at  the  expense  and  to  the  injury  of  the  far  higher  work  of  a  class, 
were  something  like  the  monstrous  inversion  of  starving  the  heart  in 
order  to  feed  the  extremities. 

Yet  I  should  have  been  unwilling  to  relinquish  the  "outward 
business  of  the  house  of  God,"  without  the  closing  effort  which  I 
now  make  for  the  exposition  and  enforcement  of  my  views ;  both  on 
those  matters  which  I  deem  to  be  of  most  urgent  importance,  and  on 
those,  let  me  be  permitted  to  say,  in  which  I  fear  that  the  Church  is 
most  likely  to  go  astray.  It  is  very  possible  that  some  of  my  views  will 
not  be  found  to  quadrate  with  those  of  men  possessing  great  weight 
and  consideration  in  our  Church.  This  will  not  prevent  me  from 
stating  them,  though  I  am  no  longer  able  to  contend  for  them.  I 
have  not  forgotten  the  all  but  universal  incredulity  wherewith  the 
proposal  for  Associations  was  received;  and  can  now  ask,  in  what 
state  of  external  support  would  our  Church  have  at  this  moment  been, 
but  for  these  Associations?  The  experiment  has  now  ripened  into 
experience;  and,  with  God's  blessing,  I  have  the  utmost  confidence 
that,  on  the  strength  of  a  few  plain  and  obvious  principles,  not  only 
might  the  support  of  the  Free  Church  be  secured,  but  its  extension 
be  indefinitely  carried  forward.  There  is  enough  of  evidence,  how- 
ever, even  in  the  brief  history  of  our  Free  Church,  to  justify  the 
apprehension  that  these  principles  may  be  forgotten  and  disregarded. 
There  is  a  leaven  of  selfishness,  which,  if  not  purged  out,  might 
leaven  the  whole  lump;  and,  should  it  come  to  this,  we  can  look 
neither  for  stability  nor  enlargement — when  all  men  mind  their  own 
things,  and  not  the  things  of  the  Lord  Jesus. 


M 


ECONOMICS 


FREE  CHURCH  OF    SCOTLAND, 


Our  observations  on  the  Financial  System  of  the  Free  Church  had 
better  be  arranged  into  different  sections,  with  titles  expressive  each 
of  a  separate  yet  integral  department  of  the  whole  subject.  In  our 
first  section  we  shall  treat  of  the  Contributions  made  or  making  in 
all  parts  of  the  country  for  the  support  of  the  Free  Church.  In  the 
second,  of  the  business  devolved  upon  the  Board  of  Correspondence 
and  Management  in  Edinburgh,  or,  in  other  words,  on  the  Financial 
Committee.  In  the  third,  on  the  principles  by  which  the  distribu- 
tion of  the  Central  Fund,  formed  chiefly  by  remittances  from  the 
Associations  of  the  Free  Church,  ought  to  be  regulated.  In  the 
fourth,  on  the  distinction,  if  any,  which  should  be  made  between 
those  ministers  of  the  Free  Church  who  left  the  Establishment  at 
the  Disruption,  and  those  who  have  become  ministers  in  it  since. 
In  the  fifth,  we  propose  to  treat  of  Church  Extension.  In  the  sixth, 
to  present  a  general  view  of  the  Schemes  and  Objects  of  the  Church, 
so  as  that  its  members  and  friends  might  be  made  distinctly  aware 
what  the  regular  calls  are  upon  their  liberality,  and  what  the  peri- 
odical collections  which  they  might  lay  their  account  with,  and  which 
ought  not  to  be  multiplied  interminably  or  at  random.  We  shall 
then,  in  a  seventh  section,  conclude  with  the  application  of  our  prin- 
<fiples  to  questions  of  general  interest,  and  which  affect  other  churches 
equally  with  our  own.  We  confess  the  extent  of  this  plan  to  be 
somewhat  appalling.  We  shall,  therefore,  attempt  no  more  than  a 
mere  syllabus,  the  right  execution  of  which  will  require  throughout 
a  most  strenuous  effort  of  condensation. 

SECT.    I. ON    THE    CONTRIBUTIONS    FOR    THE    SUPPORT    OF   THE    FREE 

CHURCH. 

1.  The  direct  individual  subscriptions,  as  was  to  be  expected  from 
the  first,  are  now  falling  away,  though  not  to  such  an  extent  as  might 
be  conceived,  on  comparison  of  the  present  with  the  original  list — 
the  greater  part  of  these  having  merged  into  the  Associations,  and 
being  still  transmitted  to  us  through  that  medium.*  It  is  on  the 
regular  working  and  perennial  yield,  as  from  an  unintermittent 
spring,  of  the  Associations,  that  our  financial  system  mainly  de- 
pends.    This    lays   an  onerous   responsibility  upon  the  Collectors. 

*  From  the  accounts  relative  to  tliis  matter  as  last  made  up  (May  15th,  1845 )  it 
appears  that  the  produce  of  these  direct  contributions  had  fallen  from  iJl7,353  Os.  8id. 
to  £1{)55  10s.  3id.;  while  the  produce  of  the  Associations  liad  risen  from  iJ50,934  lOa. 
to  £70,575  is.  Bid.    We  cannot  yet  present  the  accounts  for  the  present  year. 


J80  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

We  do  not  say  onerous  in  the  sense  that  theirs  is  a  burdensome 
performance.  Generally  speaking,  a  very  brief  interval  of  time 
would  suffice  for  their  periodical  rounds  of  visitation.  All  which  is 
required  is,  that  the  duty,  a  very  light  one,  shall  never  be  omitted — 
shall  be  gone  through  punctually.  But  just  in  proportion  to  the 
lightness  of  the  duty  will  be  the  heaviness  of  the  imputation,  if  it  be 
found  that  the  Free  Church  cannot  be  upheld, because, after  all  their 
parade  and  professionsof  attachment,  not  one  can  be  found  for  every 
hundred  among  her  friends  who  will  give  up  half  au  hour  in  the 
week,  or  two  hours  a  month,  in  her  service. 

2.  But  it  is  not  enough  that  this  duty  should  be  punctually,  it 
should  he  fully  gone  through.  On  comparing  the  list  of  contributors 
witli  that  of  sitters  or  communicants,  it  is  often  found  that  not  one 
half  of  these  have  yet  given  in  their  names  as  members  of  the  Con- 
gregational Association.  All  should  be  offered  the  opportunity,  and 
be  invited  to  take  a  share  in  the  support  of  gospel  ordinances.  For 
this  purpose  it  were  well,  if,  either  on  beginning  anew,  or  in  order 
to  repair  the  slackness  and  incompleteness  of  the  operation  hitherto, 
each  Deacon,  accompanied  by  the  Elder  of  his  district,  should  call 
on  every  Free  Church  family  within  its  limits,*  that  each  may  be 
made  to  understand  the  object  and  the  vast  religious  importance  of 
these  Associations.  The  reason  why  we  would  have  the  Elder  to 
go  round  with  the  Deacon,  at  least  in  the  first  instance,  and  to  set 
the  process  fully  agoing,  is,  that  though  the  latter  has  chiefly  to  do 
with  the  secularities  of  the  Church,  it  is  the  part  of  the  former  to 
deal  freely  and  faithfully  with  the  people  of  his  charge  on  every  ques- 
tion in  which  conscience  and  a  Christian  obligation  are  concerned. 
Now,  the  support  of  an  evangelical  ministry  in  Scotland,  the  great 
design  of  these  Associations,  is  pre-eminently  such  a  question.  There 
is  in  it  all  the  apostolic  sacredness  of  a  missionary  cause.  And  what 
is  true  of  the  part  which  the  Elder  should  take  in  this  matter,  liolds. 
also  true  of  the  Clergyman.  No  consideration  should  restrain  him^ 
in  right  measure  and  on  all  fitting  occasions,  from  giving  his  testi- 
mony and  his  countenance  on  the  side  of  a  plain  duty.t  Otherwise, 
he  fails  in  declaring  the  whole  counsel  of  God;  and  because  of  a 
false  delicacy  on  his  part,  the  people  whom  he  should  labour  to  make 
perfect  and  complete  in  the  divine  life,  are  suffered  to  remain  beneath 
the  level  of  their  most  righteous  and  incumbent  obligations. 

3.  All  the  names  which  have  been  taken  up  in  this  initial  survey, 
by  the  Elder  and  Deacon  of  any  given  district,  should  be  made  over 
to  the  Collector  or  Collectors  attached  to  it.  After  which,  it  were 
well  if  the  Deacon  (who  might  or  might  not  be  a  Collector  himself) 
were,  at  least  once  a  quarter,  to  accompany  each  of  the  Collectors, 
who  operate  within  his  sphere,  throughout  all  the  families;  and  by 
means  of  conversation,  as  well  as  the  distribution  of  tracts  and  peri- 
odicals, to  sustain  their  interest  in  the  cause. 

4.  In  a  subscription  of  this  sort,  carried  over  a  whole  district,  and 

*  In  this  introductory  round  I  can  imagine  no  better  devised  schedule  tlian  that  of 
Mr.  Thomson  of  Ycstcr,  now  of  I'aislcy,  for  taking  down  tiie  names  and  subscriptions 
of  all  the  contributors  in  the  district. 

t  See  Appendix,  No.  1. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  21 

inclusive  of  all  classes,  there  will,  of  course,  be  a  great  variety  of 
ofierings,  from  the  penny  or  twopence  a  week,  to  the  larger  contribu- 
tions of  those  who  are  both  wiHiiig  and  wealthy.  There  cannot  be 
a  falser  principle,  than  that  the  poorer  offerings  should  be  declined 
or  dispensed  with.  Under  the  guise  of  sentiment,  there  is  in  it  all 
the  grossness  of  materialism.  To  neglect  or  underrate  the  miles  of 
our  artizans  and  labourers,  because  of  their  insignificance,  is  to  rate 
the  moral  value  of  a  sacrifice  at  nothing,  and  to  make  the  moneyed 
value  of  it  all  in  all.  It  is  a  complete  inversion  of  the  estiuiate 
passed  by  our  Saviour  on  the  humble  gift  which  the  poor  widow 
cast  into  the  treasury.  Such  a  calculator  as  this  would  gladly  forego 
all  the  moral  grandeur  which  sits  on  the  face  of  a  plebeian  congre- 
gation, each  doing  his  little  all — if  he  could  but  replace  their  liberal- 
ities by  the  munificence  of  a  single  grandee,  whose  one  princely 
contribution  slackened,  or  superseded  the  call  for  a  united  ofl'ering 
from  the  people  at  large.  We  are  not  for  bearing  hard  upon  the 
humbler  classes:  but  we  deem  it  no  kindness  to  spare  them  the  ex- 
pense of  what  they  might,  and  what  they  ought,  to  contribute  for  the 
precious  blessing  of  a  gospel  ministration  to  their  families — and  this 
at  the  far  more  grievous  expense  of  inflicting  a  mutilation  upon  their 
Christianity.  We  are  for  upholding  the  integrity  oi  their  virtue  too 
in  all  its  parts,  and  in  all  its  proportions;  nor  can  we  imagine  a  more 
mischievous  error  in  the  management  of  human  nature,  than  to  pro- 
ceed on  the  idea,  that  throughout  the  great  bulk  and  body  of  the 
common  people,  all  the  graces  and  high  characteristics  of  the  perfect 
man  in  Christ  Jesus  might  not  be  fully  realized. 

5.  But  though  it  be  the  moral  value  of  these  plebeian  contribu- 
tions which  claims  our  highest  reckoning  and  regard,  their  moneyed 
value  is  far  from  insignificant.  The  smallness  of  the  individual  of- 
ferings is  made  up  by  the  number  of  them.  In  a  congregation  of 
even  only  two  hundred  members,  did  they  average  among  them  2d. 
a  week — this  of  itself  would  there  uphold,  in  being  at  least,  a  gos- 
pel ministration.  The  average  of  3d.  a  week  would  raise  the  rn«nis- 
ter  above  a  state  of  absolute  penury,  and  of  6d.  a  week  would  sus- 
tain him  in  decency  and  comfort.*  Let  it  not  be  wondered  at,  then, 
that  we  should  prize  so  highly  every  accession  to  the  number  of  our 
contributors,  however  small  our  off'erings  might  be.  Like  every 
other  wholesome  habit,  we  should  like  if  it  pervaded  the  entire 
mass  of  our  Free  Church  community.  Nor  do  we  hesitate  to  con- 
fess, that  every  instance  of  an  upshooting  liberality  above  the  level 
of  their  penny  a  week,  on  the  part  of  artizans,  or  domestics,  or  la- 
bourers, never  fails  to  call  forth  both  a  peculiar  complacency  in  the 
good  that  is  done;  and,  for  the  principle  in  the  poor  man's  bosom 
from  which  it  flows,  the  profoundest  sense  of  respectful  estimation. 

6.  We  are  not  unaware  of  the  invectives  to  which  such  a  senti- 
ment exposes  us — often  uttered  with  the  semblance,  and  perhaps, 
too,  with  the  reality  of  a  generous,  although,  as  we  think,  mistaken 
indignation — as  if  we  proposed  to  grind  the  faces  of  the  poor,  and, 
for  the  support  of  our  ecclesiastical  system,  ravenously  to  seize  on  a 

*  Appendix,  No.  2. 


22  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

portion  of  their  hard-won  earnings.  These  reasoners  would  be  puz- 
zled to  understand  how  it  is  that  the  Methodists  of  England,  many 
of  them  in  humble  life,  give  their  shilling  a  month,  even  their  six- 
pence a  week,  for  the  maintenance  of  the  gospel — why,  after  all, 
they  form  the  best  conditioned  and  most  prosperous  community  in 
our  empire.  The  truth  is,  that  instead  of  what  they  give  being  ex- 
tracted from  the  earnings  of  their  hard  and  honest  industry,  it  were 
far  more  correct  to  say,  in  reference  to  the  great  majority  of  their 
converts,  that  what  they  give  is  the  spontaneous  tribute  of  but  a 
fraction  from  the  squanderings  of  their  former  extravagance.  The 
habit  of  economizing,  should  it  begin  with  an  offering  to  the  cause, 
w^hether  of  benevolence  or  religion,  will  not  end  there,  but  be  fol- 
lowed up  by  the  other  achievements  of  a  reformed  and  regulated  ex- 
penditure— when  the  cost  of  vain  and  vicious  indulgences  will  be 
transferred  to  higher  objects,  to  the  education  of  children,  and  such 
improvements  in  dress,  and  diet,  and  furniture,  as  betoken  a  greater 
fulness  and  sufficiency  than  before.  There  is  the  operation  of  natu- 
ral influences,  as  well  as  the  guaranty  of  Scripture  promises,  to  ac- 
count for  the  blessing  which  rests  on  a  habit  of  plebeian  liberality, 
or  self-denial.  Were  a  Savings'  Bank  to  be  set  up  any  where  in 
Scotland,  it  would  be  no  surprise  to  us  if  it  were  found  that,  for 
every  penny  given  by  the  common  people  to  the  cause  of  their  Chris- 
tian education,  there  were  as  many  shillings  or  sixpences  which  found 
their  way  to  these  most  useful  institutions.  We  should  expect,  in 
fact, our  Free  Church  population  to  be  the  largest  depositors;  and, so 
far  from  grudging  what  they  thus  retained  for  themselves,  should  re- 
joice in  the  fulfilment  of  this  expectation.  The  whole  tendency  of  a 
popular  Association  for  the  promotion  of  what  is  good,  is  to  elevate 
the  platform  of  humble  life;  and  the  effect  of  its  payments,  so  far 
from  being  to  impoverish  or  depress,  is,  through  the  medium  of  cha- 
racter and  principle,  or  by  the  elastic  operation  of  moral  causes,  to 
raise  and  uphold  our  people  in  a  far  higher  economic  stains,  than 
even  the  highest  wages,  left  all  to  their  own  disposal,  and  without 
one  farthing  given  for  religious  objects,  will  ever  secure  for  our 
careless  and  dissipated  families.* 

7.  But  there  is  another  consideration  which  enhances  still  further 
the  mighty  importance  of  the  subscription  to  its  congregational  Asso- 
ciation being  made  quite  general  among  the  members  of  each  of  our 
churches.  Once  that  the  people  of  any  particular  church  get  into 
the  unhealthy  state  of  leaning  on  the  munificence  of  a  few  of  the 
richest  among  them,  and  feeling  themselves  exonerated,  in  conse- 
quence, as  a  body,  from  all  care  and  all  obligation,  this  condition  of 
disease  is  the  sure  forerunner  to  a  speedy  and  final  dissolution.  The 
two  or  three  generous  supporters  of  the  Association  die,  and  may 
never  be  replaced  by  men  in  their  own  likeness.  But  a  popular 
habit,  once  it  is  settled,  has  in  it  a  principle  of  endurance,  by  which 
it  is  perpetuated  from  generation  to  generation.  It  descends  in  fami- 
lies from  father  to  son;  and,  instead  of  being  only  kept  afloat  for  a 
few  years  by  the  rare  and  romantic  liberality  of  perhaps  a  single  in- 

*  Appendix,  No.  3. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  23 

dividual,  instead  of  an  ephemeral  duration  on  some  precarious  and 
short-lived  tenure  of  this  sort,  the  institute  has  become  a  fixture  in 
the  neighbourhood,  because  it  has  struck  its  roots  in  every  house- 
hold of  worshippers,  solidly  based,  and  tenaciously  held  together,  on 
the  extended  platform  of  the  middle  and  lower  classes  of  society. 

8,  But  while  we  deprecate  the  general  selfishness  that  would  lead 
a  congregation  to  do  nothing  for  the  cause,  because  a  few  of  their 
number  have  a  largeness  both  of  wealth  and  of  good  will,  which,  in 
as  far  as  money  is  concerned,  goes  far  to  cover  their  deficiencies — 
we  have  no  inclination  whatever  to  spare  the  wealthy,  or  to  relax  in 
their  favour  the  Bible  principle,  that  every  man  should  give  as  God 
hath  prospered  him.  The  pounds  of  the  rich  should  not  supersede 
the  pennies  of  the  poor;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  the  pennies  of  the 
poor  form  what  ought  to  be  a  telling  argument  for  pounds  from  the 
rich.  Tiie  surrender  of  2d.  or  3d.  a-week  from  a  labourer  may  imply 
as  great  a  moral  sacrifice,  as  the  weekly  gift  of  £2  or  £.0  from  a  man 
of  affluence;  and  we  have  illustrious  examples  of  such  generosity 
among  the  friends  of  the  Free  Church,  of  individual  subscribers 
who  give  their  £100,  or  i2200,  or  £300  in  the  year,  and  of  one  who 
gives  his  annual  £500,  besides  some  instances  of  donations  to  the 
extent  of  a  thousand  pounds,  for  the  sustentation  of  the  ministry. 
There  is  room,  there  is  ample  room  for  many,  for  very  many  more, 
of  such  liberalities;  and  though  they  were  multiplied  tenfold,  a  most 
beneficial  expenditure  could  be  found  for  every  farthing  of  it.  Let 
the  wealthier  friends  of  the  Free  Church  only  bethink  themselves  of 
the  increased  number  of  its  ministers,  from  470  to  about  650 — of  the 
extreme  lowness  of  their  dividend  raised,  with  great  difficulty  and 
effort,  by  a  small  fraction  of  excess  above  £100  a-year, — of  the  yet 
many  unprovided  Free  Church  congregations,  in  readiness  for  ecclesi- 
astical labourers,  so  soon  as  we  can  finish  their  theological  education, 
— above  all,  of  the  vast  extent  of  land  which  remains  to  be  possessed, 
and  from  every  part  of  which  we  receive  the  most  unbounded  assur- 
ances of  welcome;  so  that  with  but  an  adequate  enlargement  of 
means,  there  lies  before  us  the  magnificent  enterprise  of  covering  the 
whole  of  yet  unreclaimed  Scotland  with  our  churches  and  our  schools; 
and  thus  to  fill  up  every  deficiency,  whether  in  the  amount  of  Chris- 
tian or  of  common  education  for  all  the  families.* 

9.  But  we  suffer  from  this  evil,  and  far  more  generally,  in  another 
form.  Not  only  does  one  part  of  the  same  congregation  often  fail  in 
their  duty,  leaving  the  whole  weight  and  burden  of  that  obligation, 
which  they  ought  to  take  a  share  in,  to  the  other  part  of  it — but  there 
are  many  congregations  in  certain  parts  of  the  Church,  who,  trusting 
to  the  more  generous  or  wealthy  congregations  in  other  parts  of  it, 
fall  miserably  short  in  their  contributions  to  the  Central  Fund.  This 
is  far  the  sorest  and  heaviest  impediment  in  our  way,  which,  if  not 
effectually  made  head  against,  will  infallibly  run  us  aground;  and 
put  an  end  to  all  the  fondest  anticipations  of  Christian  benevolence  on 
the  subject  of  a  universal  Sabbath,  and  universal  week-day,  education 
for  the  people  of  our  land,  a  consummation  quite  within  our  reach, 

•  Appendix,  No.  4. 


24  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

would  the  friends  of  the  Free  Church  but  fulfil  their  plain  and  prac- 
ticable, and,  let  me  add,  not  only  their  sacred,  but  to  leave  them 
wholly  without  excuse,  their  truly  light  and  easy  obligations.  We 
do  hope  that  hitherto  there  has  been  a  great  want  of  understanding 
in  this  matter;  and  that  the  hardship  of  which  we  complain  is  not 
altogether  due  to  selfishness.  It  were  a  great  relief  to  know  of  the 
aid-receiving  congregations,  that,  instead  of  being  chargeable  with 
misbehaviour  in  the  wretchedly  small  remittances  which  a  great 
many  of  them  have  made,  the  reason  why  they  have  done  so  little  is 
mainly  founded  upon  miscalculation.  We  are  aware  of  a  delusion 
too  prevalent  over  the  country,  that  when  the  hundreds  and  thousands 
of  pounds  raised  in  the  large  towns  are  reported  in  their  hearing, 
they  feel  that  with  all  safety  they  might  lie  upon  their  oars,  and  that 
any  insignificant  contribution  which  they  could  make  to  the  fund  is 
of  small  consequence.  There  cannot  be  a  more  grievous  perversity, 
nor  one  more  sure  in  the  end  to  shipwreck  the  dearest  objects  of 
Christian  patriotism.  It  is  no  doubt  desirable  that  we  should  increase 
both  the  number  and  liberality  of  the  aid-giving  congregations;  but 
it  is  of  far  more  vital  importance  to  our  cause,  that  we  should  lessen 
the  number,  and  diminish  the  enormous  absorptions,  of  the  aid-receiv- 
ing congregations.  They  form  a  wall  of  interception  in  the  way  of 
extending  the  Church  to  places  and  people  more  destitute  than  them- 
selves;  or  perhaps  they  were  better  compared  to  an  annular  belt  of 
sand,  which  drinks  in  all  the  waters  that  issue  from  the  central  reser- 
voir, making  it  impossible  to  reach  or  fertihze  the  regions  beyond 
it.  We  should  infinitely  less  value  all  the  additional  hundreds  and 
thousands  that  might  be  raised  from  the  wealthier  congregations, 
than  we  should  an  average  elevation  of  £50  in  the  contributions  that 
come  to  us  from  the  lower  half  of  the  scale.  This  were  like  tlie 
opening  of  a  gate  that  would  set  us  at  liberty:  and  make  us  free  to 
expatiate,  so  as  that  we  might  find  our  way  both  to  the  most  wretched 
population  in  towns,  and  to  the  poorest  and  remotest  extremities  of 
Scotland. 

10.  But  are  the  ministers  not  here  in  fault?  Why  do  they  not  lift 
their  free  and  fearless  testimony  on  this  matter,  telling  the  people 
their  duty  with  all  faithfulness;  and  making  it  clear  both  to  their  un- 
derstanding and  their  conscience,  that  on  the  extent  of  tiieir  liberali- 
ties hinges  the  extent  to  which  the  ministrations  of  the  gospel  can  be 
carried  in  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland?  What  is  it  that  restrains 
them  from  makitig  this  statement  ?  Is  it  the  paltry  consideration  tliat 
their  own  maintenance,  and  that  of  their  famihes,  are  bound  up  with 
tlie  great  Central  Fund  which  is  formed  out  of  the  ojierings  of  all  the 
churches?  One  might  have  expected  that  the  men  who,  for  the  sake 
of  principle,  had  reluiquished  all  their  emoluments,  would  have  felt 
nobly  superior  to  the  low-minded  imputation  of  selfishness,  when 
pleading  now  for  the  sacred  cause  of  an  evangelical  ministry,  which 
had  been  cast  by  the  hand  of  power  an  unprotected  orphan  upon  the 
world.  For  the  uiainienance  of  their  families!  This  truly  forms  but 
the  veriest  bagatelle,  a  mere  speck  in  an  argument,  whose  high  bear- 
ing is  on  the  best  and  highest  interests  of  the  fanulies  of  Scotland. 
And  besides,  if  theirs  be  an  aid-receiving  congregation,  or  one  taking 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  itS 

more  out  of  the  common  fund  than  they  are  giving  into  it,  what 
should  restrain  them  from  telling  their  people  that  they  should  be  as 
little  burdensome  to  others  as  possible?  And,  on  the  other  hand, 
should  theirs  be  an  aid-giving  congregation,  or  one  sending  more  into 
the  Central  Treasury  than  is  returned  to  them,  what  should  restrain 
them  from  telling  their  people  that  it  is  the  duty  of  the  strong  to  sup- 
port the  weak;  and  from  cheering  them  onward  to  larger  and  higher 
Hberalities,  till  the  whole  of  our  beloved  country  shall  be  replenished 
with  churches  of  a  pure  faith,  and  schools  of  a  sound  and  scriptural 
education?  On  the  strength  of  such  frank  and  full  explanations, 
there  would  be  no  difficulty  in  enlisting  the  people  on  the  side  of  so 
noble  an  achievement.  Once  that  their  understandings  were  en- 
lightened, their  conscience  and  their  wills,  we  verily  believe,  would 
be  carried,  and  that  well  nigh  universally.  But  we  have  heard  an- 
other, and,  we  must  say,  a  more  discreditable  reason  for  this  7'elice7ice 
on  the  part  of  ministers — even  a  fear  lest  the  expenses  of  their  self- 
sustained  church  shou'd  deter  the  people  from  adhering  to  it.  This 
is  very  like  the  invention  of  enemies;  and,  at  all  events,  the  appre- 
hension which  they  would  fain  ascribe  to  our  respected  friends  and 
fellow-labourers  is  one  which  we  do  not  share  in — nay,  even  though 
we  did,  we  should  utterly  refuse  it  as  an  element  of  slightest  influence 
upon  the  question.  We  have  no  wish  that  our  Church  should  be 
otherwise  expanded,  than  by  the  accession  to  it  of  pure  and  well 
principled  members.  We  have  no  ambition  for  mere  numbers;  and 
should  regard  it  as  a  disgusting  spectacle  to  see  thousands  and  tens  of 
thousands  congregated  at  sacraments,  who  were  persisting  in  the 
neglect  of  a  plain  duty,  and  not  only  inflicting  a  disability  on  the 
general  cause  of  our  great  Home  Mission  by  taking  as  much  to  them- 
selves and  giving  as  little  to  others  as  possible,  but  even  doing  nothing 
to  alleviate  the  penury  and  privation  of  their  own  immediate  minis- 
ters. To  talk  of  a  people's  thirst  for  ordinances  in  conjunction  with 
such  an  apathy  or  sordidness  as  this,  is  to  palm  on  the  face  of  the 
world  a  most  hideous  and  revolting  combination.  But  we  again 
repeat  our  conviction  that  the  people  are  not  in  fault;  and  if  hitherto 
any  of  them  have  been  living  in  the  neglect  of  a  plain  duty,  it  is  be- 
cause they  have  not  been  plainly  told  of  it.  Were  their  eyes  once 
opened  to  the  state  of  the  case,  they  would  no  longer  remain  an  in- 
cubus or  dead  weight  upon  a  cause  in  which  their  affections  are  so 
thoroughly  engaged. 

11.  It  has  been  well  said,  that  neither  the  duties  nor  the  oppor- 
tunities of  beneficence  are  confined  to  the  rich.  Even  the  poor  man 
who  can  bestow  nothing  upon  charity,  may  yet  evince  the  whole 
principle  and  soul  of  charity,  by  struggling  against  the  necessity  of 
receiving,  or,  at  least,  so  that  he  might  be  as  little  burdensome  as  he 
can.  And  he  might  earn  by  these  noble  exertions  all  the  credit  of  a 
positive  benefactor — for  what  he  refrains  from  absorbing  upon  his 
own  wants,  is  free  to  be  discharged  on  the  wants  of  others  more  help- 
less than  himself.  In  like  manner,  an  aid-receiving  Association  may 
never  attain  to  the  condition  of  a  self-supporting  one;  and  yet  by 
every  pound  of  upward  approximation  to  this  higher  level,  or  for 
every  pound  whereby  it  lessens  the  excess  of  its  receipts  over  its 


26  ECONOMICS   OP   THE 

remittances,  it  leaves  a  pound  free  for  the  supply  of  localities  more 
destitute  than  its  own.  Were  tliis  noble  principle  once  to  pervade 
our  Church,  and  be  generally  acted  on,  we  see  no  limit  to  the  opera- 
tion of  a  Christian  philanthropy,  that  would  first  people  our  own 
country  to  the  full  with  all  the  desirable  institntes,  both  of  religions 
and  literary  education,  and  then  flow  over  in  the  might  of  its  exube- 
rance upon  other  lands. 

12.  But  with  all  our  anxiety  to  work  up  the  average  offerings  of 
the  aid-receiving  congregations,  and  all  our  sense  of  the  vast  impor- 
tance that  they  should  do  their  uttermost  to  spare  us,  let  me  repeat 
that  we  have  no  desire  to  exonerate  from  their  present  rate  of  con- 
tribution, or  to  lessen  the  number  of  our  aid-giving  congregations. 
On  the  contrary,  one  main  reason  of  our  urgency  with  the  Associa- 
tions on  the  lower  part  of  the  scale,  is  to  encourage  and  keep  in 
good  heart  and  exertion  the  Associations  on  the  higher  part  of  it. 
There  is  a  pleasure  in  giving  all  needful  help  to  parties,  who  at  the 
same  time  are  doing  all  they  can  to  help  themselves;  just  as  in  the 
work  of  private  benevolence,  there  is  a  supreme  luxury  and  enjoy- 
ment in  bestowing  the  requisite  aid  on  a  struggling  and  meritorious 
family.  But,  on  the  other  hand,  as  nothing  is  more  fitted  to  chill  and 
to  dispirit  our  charity  to  a  poor  neighbour,  than  to  find  that  every 
new  benefaction  has  the  effect  of  making  him  more  reckless  and 
ravenous  than  before;  so,  infallibly,  will  our  wealthier  congregations 
become  weary  of  their  present  well-doing,  if  they  find  that  it  tends 
but  to  nourish  the  apathy  and  indolence  of  poorer  congregations, 
leaving  their  whole  weight  upon  others,  and  quite  satisfied  to  get  as 
much  and  to  give  as  littlQ  as  they  can.  Let  this  be  the  prevalent 
habit,  and  the  Free  Church  will  to  a  certainty  break  up;  at  least  as 
a  national,  though  it  may  still  keep  its  ground  as  a  limited  and  sec- 
tarian institute.  It  will  be  unable  to  enlarge  the  ground  which  it 
now  occupies,  and  so  cease  to  be  an  extending  Church.  Nay,  it  will 
be  compelled  to  surrender  most  of  its  present  territory;  for,  in  less 
than  half  an  age,  there  are  hundreds  of  our  congregations  which 
must  wither  into  extinction,  if,  in  the  first  instance,  they  will  do  little 
or  nothing  for  themselves;  and,  in  the  second  instance,  the  more 
affluent  of  our  churches,  revolted  by  the  heartless  spectacle  of  such 
misconduct,  will  cease  from  their  liberalities,  and  do  as  little  for 
them.  Let  us  hope  better  things;  and  that,  by  a  harmonious  work- 
ing between  these  two  classes  of  Associations,  the  odds  which  we 
now  complain  of  will  soon  be  made  even.  The  only  way  of  getting 
the  two  ends  to  meet  is,  that  the  richer  congregations  shall  give  as 
much  as  they  might,  and  the  poorer  seek  as  little  as  they  might.  Or, 
in  other  words,  that  the  contributions  of  the  former  shall  rise  as  high 
above  their  dividends,  and  the  contributions  of  the  latter  shall  come 
as  nearly  up  to  their  dividends,  as  possible.  And,  beside  the  moneyed 
result,  there  would  accrue  an  incalculably  higher  benefit  in  the 
moral  result  of  such  a  glorious  emulation,  reminding  us  of  those 
bright  and  sunny  periods  in  the  history  of  Jndca,  when  not  only  its 
good  kings,  but  the  princes  and  all  the  people  poured  in  their  offer- 
ings for  the  service  of  the  temple,  and  rejoiced  because  God  had 
given  them  a  heart  to  offer  willingly;  and  the  benedictions  of  the 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  27 

monarch  upon  his  throne  were  responded  to  in  gladness  and  with 
enthusiasm  by  the  thousands  of  Israel. 

SECTION  II. ON  THE  FINANCIAL  COMMITTEE. 

■  1.  I  do  not  undertake  a  complete  description  of  this  body,  nor  of 
the  various  cares  and  duties  which  should  be  assigned  to  them. 
There  is  much  of  what  is  obvious  to,  and  well  known  by  all,  which 
requires  no  demonstration,  and  the  statement  of  which  would  but 
swell  unnecessarily  the  bulk  of  this  pamphlet.  I  therefore  confine 
myself  to  a  very  few  of  those  desiderata  which  have  been  suggested 
to  me  by  my  own  observation,  as  being  of  the  most  urgent  import- 
ance. 

2,  There  should  be  a  great  predominance  of  laymen  in  the  Com- 
mittee, which,  at  the  same  time,  ought  not  to  be  over  numerous. 
There  might  be  two  or  three  clergymen  for  the  sake  of  certain  ques- 
tions which  require  a  sound  ecclesiastical  judgment  to  be  rightly 
decided  on,  whose  opinion  on  these  would,  of  course,  be  much 
deferred  to  by  the  rest  of  their  colleagues.  And  it  greatly  concerns, 
the  good  of  the  Church,  that  of  laymen  there  should  be  a  most  care- 
ful and  judicious  and  well-weighed  selection.  It  is  not  to  be  told 
what  mischief  might  be  incurred  by  the  rash  and  random  appoint- 
ments of  committee-men.  Men  of  greatest  eminence  as  debaters 
and  orators  in  a  popular  assembly  are  not  always,  I  should  even  say 
are  not  generally,  the  best  qualified  to  be  counsellors  in  committees. 
They  may  be  profoundly  legal,  and  irrefragably  logical,  and  bril- 
liantly eloquent,  yet  be  very  deficient  in  transacting  with  men,  or 
on  matters  of  business.  It  puts  to  most  serious  hazard  the  interest 
of  the  Church's  business,  when  such  appointments  are  made  com- 
pUmentarily;  and  so  are  laid  upon  men,  who,  whatever  their  excel- 
lence in  other  and  perhaps  very  high  departments  of  usefulness, 
might  utterly  fail  in  that  certain  tact,  or  ready  and  practical  discern- 
ment of  men  and  things,  which  accomplishes  one  for  what  the 
French,  if  I  mistake  not,  call  "le  savoir  des  affaires."  Or,  to  illus- 
trate my  meaning  the  more,  they  may  have,  in  a  most  pre-eminent 
degree,  the  "savoir,"  in  some  very  noble  departments  too,  of  scholar- 
ship and  science,  and  professional  learning;  yet  may  entirely  lack 
the  "savoir-faire"  in  the  department  of  committeeship.  They  have 
plenty  of  the  "savoir,"  in  things  of  argument;  but  as  to  the  "faire," 
in  things  practical,  they  have  either  none  of  it,  or  have  it  in  a  way- 
ward and  wrong  direction.  I  most  assuredly  would  not  express  my- 
self so  strongly,  but  for  my  serious  apprehension  lest  these  outward 
matters  of  our  Church  should  fall  into  unfortunate  hands.  Were  I 
to  speak  the  recollections  of  my  own  experience,  I  should  say  that 
merchants  and  solicitors,  or  writers  to  the  signet,  are  far  the  most 
desirable  coadjutors  in  the  work  of  directing  the  correspondence,  and 
conducting  the  various  managements  which  are  confided  to  commit- 
tees. Or,  without  specifying  the  professions  so  minutely,  let  me  state, 
in  general,  the  value  I  feel  for  the  sagacity  and  good  sense  of  all  such 
as  have  been  schooled  aright  either  in  counting-houses  or  chambers 
of  agency.     The  education  and  professional  habits,  neither  of  advo- 


28  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

cafes  nor  ministers,  are  at  all  favourable  to  those  business  qualifica- 
tions which  I  most  desiderate  for  our  working  committees, 

3.  The  Church  cannot  adequately  feel  her  obligations  to  those  lay 
supporters  and  friends,  who  so  generously  lend  their  time  and  their 
gratuitous  labours  to  her  service.  But  it  is  monstrous  impolicy  to 
confide  altogether,  or'  in  very  great  proportion,  so  large  an  interest  as 
that  of  her  Sustentation  Fund,  to  the  discretionary  and  unremu- 
iierated  attendance  even  of  her  most  zealous  and  best  qualified  adher- 
ents. There  ought  to  be  a  greatly  fuller  paid  agency,  and  with  all 
the  guaranties  for  a  vigorous  and  punctual  discharge  of  our  busi- 
ness, which  obtain  in  any  of  the  public  and  national  offices,  or  in  any 
of  the  great  trading  establishments  of  the  country.  And  first,  in 
addition  to  a  treasurer  with  the  proper  complement  of  clerks,  there 
should  be  a  Lay  Superintendent,  whose  business  it  is,  whether  by 
personal  visits,  or  by  the  emanations  of  a  central  correspondence,  to 
keep  the  whole  machinery  of  our  Associations  constantly  and  vigor- 
ously agoing — under  whom  no  omission  should  be  left  unnoticed, 
and  no  letter  of  inquiry  should  be  left  unanswered.  I  cannot  enter 
at  length  on  the  multifarious  details  of  such  an  otfice,  any  more  than 
I  am  qualified  to  describe  all  that  passes  and  repasses  between  a 
head  bank  and  its  branches,  or  between  a  great  commercial  house  in 
the  metropolis,  and  its  dependents  or  customers  all  over  the  country. 
But  sure  I  am  that  there  is  room  and  application  for  a  business-talent 
of  the  highest  order  in  the  work  of  completing  and  giving  full  etfi- 
ciency  to  the  whole  system  of  our  operations.  It  is,  therefore,  of  the 
utmost  importance  to  our  financial  prosperity,  that  we  should  have 
a  Superintendent  of  thorough  business  ability  and  habits,  under  the 
control,  at  the  same  "time,  and  surveillance  of  a  Committee,  mainly 
composed  of  business  men. 

4,  But  this  is  not  the  whole  of  that  central  and  directing,  and  pre- 
siding influence  which  I  would  bring  to  bear  upon  the  provinces. 
The  apparatus  in  Edinburgh,  to  the  extent  that  has  been  yet  descri- 
bed, were  far  from  being  complete,  at  least  far  short  of  the  point  to 
which  we  would  carry  it.  Beside  the  Lay  Superintendent,  whose 
converse,  whether  by  letter  or  by  personal  visitation,  should,  in  the 
main,  be  with  Secretaries  and  Collectors,  and  the  various  lay  office 
bearers  of  our  diflerent  Associations,  we  greatly  desiderate  a  Cleri- 
cal Correspondent,  who,  beside  seeing  to  the  preparation  and  issue 
of  tracts  and  circulars,  charged  with  the  high  matters  of  principle 
and  religious  duty,  should  hold  converse  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively, 
with  the  ministers  of  the  Free  Church.  Without  an  oflice  of  this 
sort,  both  well  filled  and  well  executed,  our  present  financial  returns 
will  not  be  increased,  will  not  even  be  upholden.  If  left  exclusively 
in  the  hands  of  secular  men,*  the  whole  of  our  financial  system  will 
be  secularized,  after  which  it  will  infallibly  go  to  pieces.  Ours  is 
essentially  a  religious  operation  for  a  religious  object;  and  if  sepa- 
rated from  the  religious  principle  by  which  alone  it  is  kept  in  health- 
ful and  living  play,  then,  as  if  bereft  of  its  needful  and  sustaining 
aliment,  it  will  wither  into  extinction  in  a  few  years.     We  do  not 

*  Meaning  by  this  to  designate  not  the  character,  but  the  profession. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  Z9 

see  how  this  essential  vitality  can  be  kept  up  and  circulated,  but  by 
an  influential  ecclesiastic  in  Edinburgh  holding  busy  and  perpetual 
converse  with  his  ecclesiastical  brethren  all  over  the  land.  Our  cler- 
gymen, many  of  wliom,  I  must  be  frank  enough  to  say,  have  still 
much  to  learn,  will  not  take  their  lesson  from  the  Lay  Superinten- 
dent, or  submit  to  any  urgencies  and  remonstrances  from  him,  yet 
will  bear  (they  at  least  ought)  to  be  calmly,  and  christianly,  and 
affectionately  reasoned  with,  when  requested,  on  the  high  apostolic 
ground  of  ours  being  a  great  Home  Mission,  to  the  fulfilment  of 
which  all  should  lend  a  hand,  when  requested,  we  say,  to  give  his 
testimony  and  countenance  in  favour  of  the  cause;  and  so  as  that 
the  agency  of  his  Association  might  be  kept  in  good  heart  and 
good  will  for  the  regular  discharge  of  the  parts  which,  whether  as 
Collectors  or  Contributors,  respectively  belong  to  them.  This  Cleri- 
cal Correspondent  should  have  free  access  to  all  the  returns  which 
come  from  the  country,  that  upon  them  he,  when  necessary,  may 
found  his  communications.  And  not  only  so,  but  it  were  fiu'ther 
well  if  [le  singled  out  those  clergymen  for  his  occasional  letters,  who 
might  prove  his  most  useful  auxiliaries,  in  their  respective  neigh- 
bourhoods, in  this  great  and  good  work.  Such  is  our  sense  of  the 
immense  practical  importance  of  some  such  arrangement,  that  we 
confess  our  alarm,  when  finding,  in  any  instance,  that  our  views  of 
it  are  not  sympathized  with.  What  greatly  enhances  our  conviction 
of  the  incalculable  good  which  would  ensue  from  it,  is  the  uniform 
experience  that  wherever  the  matter  is  undertaken  zealously  and 
intelligently  by  the  minister,  there  we  are  sure  to  have  a  prosperous 
Association.* 

5.  But  we  are  yet  far  short  of  our  beait  ideal  in  respect  of  this 
central  machinery,  far  short  of  the  optimism  after  which  we  aspire. 
Over  and  above  all  that  we  have  yet  specified,  we  would  have  a 
number  of  travelling  agents,  who  might  go  to  work  in  a  far  more 
piece-meal  and  particular  way  among  the  Associations  than  we  have 
yet  been  able  for.  The  Superintendent  can,  in  his  own  person,  only 
deal  with  aggregates,  with  the  representatives  met  together  of  all 
the  Associations  in  a  given  district.  With  the  duties  of  his  inner 
department  at  Edinburgh,  he  cannot  possibly  combine  a  thoroughly 
pervading  operation  over  the  outer  department  of  the  country  at 
large.  His  wholesale  surveys  can  accomplish  no  more  than  what 
our  trigonometrical  surveyors  would  call  the  triangulation  of  the 
territory.  For  filling  up  of  the  intermediate  spaces,  there  must  be 
additional  hands.  They  might  not  go  so  often  to  the  Associations 
that  are  doing  well,  excepting  at  times,  to  learn  particularly  of  their 
methods,  and  this  with  the  view  of  holding  them  forth  as  an  excite- 
ment and  an  example  to  other  Associations,  But  they  would  be  of 
incalculable  use  by  putting  into  action  and  good  order  all  our  defi- 
cient Associations,  and  in  setting  up  new  ones.  The  Returns  of 
every  month  would  make  mainfest  what  the  Associations  were, 

*  On  penning  this  sentence,  there  instantly  occurred  to  me  the  names  of  Mr.  Alex- 
ander of  Kirkaldy,  Mr.  Craig  of  Rothesay,  Mr.  Bain  of  Coupar-Angus.  I  do  hope  that 
they  will  forgive  tliis  public  notice  of  them.  There  are  many  others  who  would  soon 
cast  up  to  recollection,  were  I  to  dwell  longer  on  this  part  of  the  subject. 


30  ECONOMICS   OP    THE 

which  would  require  either  the  direction  or  the  stimuhis  of  a  per- 
sonal visit  from  one  of  oiir  travellers.  It  were  worth  his  while,  even 
for  the  sake  of  a  single  Association,  to  undertake  a  journey  of  many 
miles;  and  especially  as  along  the  tract  on  both  sides  of  it,  he  could 
offer  his  passing  respects,  and  bestow  the  refreshing  influence  of  his 
presence  on  various  Associations.  He  should  often  spend  days  in  a 
neighbourhood,  even  though  it  were  for  nothing  more  than  to  put 
one  remote  and  isolated  Association  into  a  state" of  right  equipment 
and  activity.  He  should  hold  much  intercourse  with  the  influcntials 
of  the  district;  be  most  minutely  and  kindly  exi)licit  in  his  conver- 
sation with  the  Collectors;  and,  above  all,  should,  by  his  piety  and 
intelligence  together,  find  his  way  to  the  Scottish  heart  of  our  homely 
and  well-principled  countrymen,  which  he  will  be  sure  to  do  when 
he  tells  them  of  the  vast  religious  importance  of  the  errand  upon 
which  he  has  come;  and  in  the  success  of  which  there,  and  in  other 
places,  there  hangs  the  mighty  interest  of  churches  for  all  and  schools 
for  all.  This  is  the  true  way  of  making  the  life-blood  of  our  cause 
circulate  from  the  heart  to  the  extremities  of  Scotland.  Hitherto 
we  have  greatly  too  much  confined  ourselves  to  the  flying  missiles 
of  letters,  and  circulars,  and  written  queries,  and  such  other  winged 
messengers  as  these,  between  the  metropolis  and  the  provinces. 
Such  a  system  as  I  have  now  pointed  out  of  kindly,  domestic, 
personal  visitations,  on  the  part  of  Christian,  and  withal  companion- 
able men,  would  be  a  thousand  times  more  effective.  It  is  the  very 
instrumentality  by  which  to  keep  every  old  Association  from  sinking, 
and  by  which  to  foster  into  being  and  activity  many  new  ones.  Our 
little  knots  of  adherents,  even  in  the  most  sequestered  places,  could 
thus  be  cherished  into  congregations;  and  not  a  spark  or  embryo  of 
an  attachment  to  the  cause  of  a  free  gospel  needs  be  suffered  any 
where  to  expire. 

6.  We  do  hope  that  these  mighty  advantages  will  reconcile  the 
Church  to  the  expenses  of  a  larger  paid  agency.  There  is  a  preju- 
dice, I  had  almost  said  a  low-minded  suspicion,  on  this  subject,  most 
grievously  adverse  to  the  enlargement  of  the  Church's  resources  and 
her  means.  The  sum  of  £2000  or  even  £3000  a-year,  and  perhaps 
more,  rightly  expended  on  right  men,  would  be  remunerated  more 
than  fifty-fold  by  the  impulse  thus  given  to  the  mechanism  of  our 
Associations.  The  country  would  feel  an  ample  recompense  in  the 
charm  of  a  ready  and  punctual  service,  which  as  yet  they  have  little 
experienced;  and  in  being  saved  from  the  provocation  of  those  end- 
less delays,  which,  from  the  sheer  want  of  men  to  do  the  required 
work,  have  been  really  unavoidable.  Of  course  the  expense  of  all 
that  is  done  for  the  Financial  Committee  ought  to  be  laid  on  the  funds 
of  that  Committee;  and  glad  shall  we  be,  iT  protected  from  the  ex- 
pense incurred  by  other  committees,  over  which  we  had  no  control, 
the  maxim  should  ever  be  held  inviolable,  that  the  expenses  of  every 
committee  should  be  defrayed  from  moneys  of  its  own  raising — a 
maxim,  the  violation  of  which  is  just  that  sort  of  monstrous  paralo- 
gism in  business,  which  we  trust  will  never  be  repeated.  Yet 
what  has  been  done  once  maybe  done  over  again;  and  iience  the 
necessity  of  a  vigilant  guardianship  and  control  on  the  part  of  men 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  31 

who  have  a  real  knowledge  of  business,  that  a  popular  assembly, 
ever  liable  to  the  impulse  of  hasty  and  partial  views,  may  not,  by 
oversetting  the  clearest  principles  of  right  management,  bring  every 
thing  into  confusion. 

SECTIONS  III.  AND  IV. ON  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF    THE   SUSTENTATION 

FUND.* 

1.  There  is  nothing  to  be  more  strongly  deprecated,  while  yet  in 
the  infancy  of  our  Free  Church,  than  frequent  and  capricious  changes, 
and  more  especially  in  a  matter  on  which  earthly  passions  and  inter- 
ests come  so  readily  into  play,  as  the  parting  of  money.  It  is  all  the 
more  dangerous,  that  the  right  principles  on  which  the  distribution 
should  take  place,  can  only  be  gathered  from  the  comprehensive  sur- 
vey of  a  subject  large  in  itself  and  variously  complicated;  as,  besides 
the  maintenance  of  the  Church's  functionaries,  involving  in  it  the  far 
weightier  and  more  precious  element  of  what  is  best  for  the  Christian 
good  of  the  country's  population.  The  system  to  provide  for  these 
two  objects,  and  embrace  them  both,  is  not  to  be  got  at  in  some  spare 
moment  of  rapid  thought,  by  one  who  can  wield  the  pen  of  a  ready 
writer,  and  throw  off  hi.s  goodly  and  well-looking  scheme  in  the  heat 
of  a  single  down-sitting.  Neither  when  once  such  a  system  is  set  up, 
whether  as  finally  established  or  as  yet  upon  its  trial,  should  it  be 
overset  on  some  hasty  observation  by  one  who  but  looks  at  the  thing 
in  parts  or  snatches,  without  the  patient  and  full  study  of  it  in  all  its 
consequences  and  all  its  bearings. 

2.  But  while  thus  fearful  of  unnecessary  changes — as  giving  to  the 
friends  of  the  Free  Church  a  certain  painful  sense  of  frailty  and  pre- 
cariousness;  and  fitted  therefore  to  shake  their  confidence  in  the 
stability  of  our  great  and  growing  institution,  let  it  not  be  thought 
that  the  proposal  of  two  years  back,  so  far  as  adopted,  was  one  of 
these  changes.  It  was  not  a  change,  but  a  mere  expedient  to  meet 
a  new  case  or  to  provide  for  a  new  object — the  maintenance,  not  of 
the  ministers  who  came  out  at  the  time  of  the  Disruption,  but  of  such 
as  were  superadded  to  the  original  470,  whether  as  successors  in  the 
old  or  as  ordained  ministers  for  new  charges.  Our  first  care  was  the 
support  of  the  Free  Church  as  it  stood  at  the  moment  of  its  forma- 
tion; and  we  set  out  on  the  method  of  an  equal  dividend  for  all  the 
outgone  ministers.  Our  second  care  was  the  extension  of  the  Church, 
which  extension  will  infallibly  be  crippled,  nay,  brought  to  a  dead 
stand,  if  the  method  of  an  equal  dividend  is  to  be  persevered  in.  It 
is  obvious  that  if  we  are  to  give  the  same  yearly  allowance  to  every 
new  minister,  however  little  we  shall  receive  from  his  congregational 
Association,  we  cannot  hold  out  long  upon  such  a  system,  unless  by 
such  successive  reductions  of  the  dividend  as  must  sooner  or  later 
involve  the  whole  Church  in  one  conmion  overthrow.  This  is  an 
argument,  and  a  strong  one;  but  we  confess  that  it  is  not  ours.  Our 
argument  against  the  continuance  of  an  equal  dividend  is,  that  it 

•  We  have  blended  the  two  topics  of  these  sections  into  one,  from  their  standing  so 
nearly  related  to  each  other,  while  we  at  the  same  timeiieep  up  the  distinction  between 
them  in  the  primary  announcement  of  our  plan. 


32  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

would  put  an  end  to  Church  Extension.  On  the  principle  that  the 
minister's  work  is  of  far  higher  consideration  than  the  minister's 
stipend,  we  have  ever  regarded  an  addition  to  the  number  of  our 
zealous  and  hard-working  ministers  as  of  paramountly  higher  value 
than  an  addition  to  their  livelihood.  Yet  we  do  not  object  to  the 
more  secular  of  these  arguments,  which  is  both  a  very  natural  and  a 
very  sound  one.  We  are  glad  to  hare  two  arguments  instead  of  one; 
and  shall  rejoice  if,  on  the  strength  of  both  together,  we  can  succeed 
in  breaking  down  the  figment  of  Presbyterian  parity  as  brought  to 
bear  upon  this  question;  for  in  truth  it  becomes  the  veriest  of  all  fig- 
ments, when  extended,  as  some  would  do,  to  the  equality  of  ministe-  ■ 
rial  income  as  well  as  the  equality  of  mitiisterial  jurisdiction.  Let  it 
not  be  imagined  that  we  say  aught  to  the  disparagement  of  Presby- 
terianism;  for  it  is  they,  and  not  we,  who  would  vilify  and  vulgarize 
all  that  is  noble  in  its  principle  of  equality,  by  making  it  hinge  at 
all  upon  money,  and  not  altogether  upon  the  higher  standing  of 
constitutional  right.  For  ourselves,  we  have  never  felt  so  profound 
a  veneration  for  Presbytery,  as  when  witnessing  the  sublime  specta- 
cle of  that  ascendency  which  is  often  wielded  in  her  councils  by  the 
poorest  of  our  country  ministers,  and  that  on  the  sheer  force  of  his 
character  and  talents;  and  more  especially  when  some  concerted  plan 
or  policy  of  the  metropolitan  rulers  has  been  overset,  as  we  have 
sometimes  seen  in  the  Old  Assembly,  by  a  noble  burst  of  independence 
from  the  provinces.  But  to  keep  by  the  matter  in  hand:  whatever 
reason  miight  be  alleged  for  an  equal  dividend  among  the  first  minis- 
ters of  the  Disruption,  its  continuance  with  all  the  succeeding  ministers 
would  be  absolutely  ruinous.  There  is  no  church  in  Christendom, 
whether  Catholic  or  Episcopalian,  or  Reformed,  that  has  ever  con- 
ducted her  Home  Missions  on  a  principle  so  destructive  of  their 
progress  and  prosperity,  as  this  would  inevitably  be.  It  would  lay 
such  an  incubus  on  Church  Extension,  as  to  make  it  altogether 
hopeless.  We  could  reclaim  this  one  and  that  other  portion  of  the 
territory,  with  a  smaller  remuneration  at  the  first  to  the  ecclesiastical 
labourer;  but  not  if  we  are  to  be  saddled  from  the  outset  with  the 
condition  of  a  remuneration  so  large  as  that  which  issues  from  the 
Central  Fiuid  on  one  and  all  of  its  ministers.  We  could  even  give 
an  ordained  minister  to  a  newly  brought  in  locality,  and  set  up  a 
complete  parochial  economy  in  the  midst  of  it,  on  some  safe  and 
regulated  proportion,  between  its  givings  to  the  Central  Fund  and 
the  allowances  to  be  received  from  it.  On  such  a  system  we  could 
pioneer  our  way  even  to  the  poorest  localities  both  in  town  and 
country,  but  from  which  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend  would  in- 
fallibly shut  us  out.  And  when  we  take  a  survey  of  the  vast  extent 
that  remains  to  be  possessed,  to  the  appalling  city  wastes,  as  well  as 
to  the  many  outfields  of  heathenism  over  the  whole  of  Scotland,  we 
confess  our  alarm  lest  an  absurd  and  factitious  principle  shall,  under 
the  venerable  guise  of  a  Presbyterian  rule  or  category,  put  to  jeopardy 
the  dearest  of  Christian  interests — and  this  by  oversetting  all  the  con- 
siderations of  Christian  wisdom  and  soundest  Christian  expediency.* 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  5. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  33 

3.  And  not  only  would  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend  lessen  the 
amount  of  Church  Extension,  we  also  fear  that  it  would  greatly  vitiate 
its  quality.  The  prospect  of  a  sure  hundred  a  year  might  bring  an 
earthly  element  into  play,  and  call  forth  the  sordid  appetencies  of  the 
ecclesiastical  aspirant.  We  should  vastly  prefer,  when  unbroken 
ground  is  to  be  entered  on  for  the  first  time,  that  we  saw  something 
like  the  workings  of  that  self-denying  spirit,  under  the  influence  of 
which  an  affection  for  human  souls  bears  onward  an  enterprise  of 
Christian  charity,  even  amid  the  hazards  and  uncertainties  of  aught 
like  an  adequate  remuneration.  That  surely  is  not  the  most  unlikely 
process  for  the  christianization  of  an  outfield  territory,  which  affords 
scope  for  the  devotedness  and  disinterestedness  of  apostolic  times; 
nor,  on  the  other  hand,  should  we  expect  that  much  new  land  will 
ever  to  good  purpose  be  reclaimed  under  an  economy,  by  which  the 
risk  and  the  privations  incident  to  the  vocation,  whether  of  a  home  or 
foreign  missionary,  were  all  to  be  forestalled. 

4.  I  have  felt  the  greatest  difficulty  in  penning  the  above  sentences. 
I  am  not  for  underpaid  labour,  whether  it  be  missionary  or  ministerial, 
or  professional  labour  of  any  sort.  Yet  we  have  the  strongest  per- 
suasion that  to  set  missionary  work  prosperously  agoing,  the  way  is 
not  to  lure  adventurers  into  the  service  by  the  bribery  of  its  secular 
advantages.  We  fear  that  whenever  the  mercenary  inducement  is  at 
all  the  predominant  one,  it  will  act  as  a  damaging  flaw  on  the  whole 
enterprise.  The  missionary  must  from  the  very  first  be  subsisted; 
but,  rather  than  that  at  the  outset  there  should  be  held  out  the  full 
comforts  of  a  regular  settlement,  we  should  deem  it  infinitely  better 
that  he  won  his  way  to  this  by  his  success,  in  gathering  in  the  house- 
holders of  his  outfield  territory,  and  forming  them  into  a  new  congrega- 
tion. We  greatly  mistake,  we  greatly  underrate  both  the  capabilities 
and  dispositions  of  even  the  poorest  congregations  thus  formed,  if  we 
mistrust  either  their  will  or  their  power  for  such  offerings,  as  would 
constitute  a  most  important  element  in  the  maintenance  of  their 
future  minister.*  There  is  a  mine  of  productiveness  here  for  the 
support  and  extension  of  the  gospel,  which  has  not  yet  been  explored, 
which  has  scarcely  been  entered  on.  We  are  quite  sure  that  an 
a  priori  equal  dividend,  should  it  not  have  the  eff'ect  of  leaving  alto- 
gether shut,  would  at  least  deaden  every  internal  fountain  of  supply 
which  might  otherwise  be  opened  and  kept  in  vigorous  play  within 
the  bosom  of  every  additional  congregation,  thus  limiting  both  the 
revenue  of  the  Church,  and  proportionally  thereto,  her  power  of 
expansion.  We  are  quite  aware  of  the  uncertainties,  and  perhaps 
the  hardships  which,  on  the  system  as  we  would  have  it,  must  be 
encountered  at  the  commencement  of  every  new  enterprise.  But 
along  with  this  we  have  the  sanguine  anticipation  of  a  prosperous 
result,  prosperous  in  every  sense  of  the  term,  with  every  such  under- 
taking when  entered  on  in  the  spirit  of  devotedness  and  faith.  Let 
the  primary  and  prompting  impulse  be  but  an  aftection  for  souls,  and 
we  have  no  fear  of  the  consummation.  The  enlargement  of  the 
temporal  means  will  be  sure  to  follow  in  the  train  of  the  spiritual 

•  For  the  further  details  of  this  process  see  our  Section  on  Church  Extension. 


34  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

achievements.  The  commencement  and  progress  of  missionary  work 
are  Hke  the  commencement  and  progress  of  the  Christian  Vyfe.  There 
may  be  sacrifices  and  sutferings,  and  self-denial  at  the  first;  bnt  we 
know  that  there  are  earthly  as  well  as  heavenly  promises  attendant 
ou  these  exercises  of  faith  and  patience.  The  life  that  now  is,  is  not 
forgotten  amid  the  richer  and  brighter  promises  of  the  life  that  is  to 
come.  Whether  it  be  a  private  Christian  who  seeks  first  for  himself, 
or  a  missionary  who  seeks  first  and  foremost  for  the  people  among 
whom  he  labours,  the  kingdom  of  God  and  His  righteousness — the 
assurance  will  not  fail  with  either,  that  all  other  things  shall  be  added 
unto  them. 

5,  We  trust  that  we  have  now  said  enough  to  demonstrate  the 
ruinous  elfect  of  an  equal  dividend,  or  the  absolute  necessity  of  a 
proportional  dividend,  so  that  the  gettings  out  from  the  Central  Fund 
and  the  givings  in  may  bear  some  relation  the  one  to  the  other. 
The  ministers  who  came  out  at  the  Disruption  have  obtained  an  ex- 
emption from  this  rule;  but  it  is  a  rule  which  ought  to  expire  with 
their  incumbencies,  else  our  Church  can  never  expect  to  be  an  inde- 
finitely progressive  one.  What  the  proportion  ought  to  be  between 
the  yearly  remittances  of  an  Association,  and  the  yearly  return  which 
should  be  sent  to  it  back  again,  is  a  question  that  might  be  decided 
variously.  According  to  the  present  method,  the  more  recent  min- 
isters receive  a  half  more  than  is  remitted  by  their  Associations,  on 
to  the  dividend  of  £150,  after  which  there  is  no  augmentation.  At 
this  rate  no  Association  can  cost  more  than  £50  a  year  to  the  Gene- 
ral Fund,  a  most  important  limitation,  but  a  limitation  which  could 
be  secured  in  twenty  other  ways,  giving  rise  to  as  many  schemes  or 
scales  of  distribution,  the  adoption  of  any  one  of  which  would  in- 
volve no  change  of  principle,  and  might  lead  to  no  other  inconve- 
nience than  one  that  has  been  already  adverted  to,  and  might  be  as 
well  avoided,  a  certain  painful  sense  of  instability  in  our  system, 
when  thus  made  to  undergo  a  number  of  wanton  and  unnecessary 
alterations. 

6.  The  great  and  essential  reform  needed  upon  our  financial  sys- 
tem is  some  provision,  call  it  either  a  stimulus  or  a  check,  by  the  ope- 
ration of  which  our  aid-receiving  Associations  shall  be  either  made 
to  contribute  more,  or  receive  less,  from  that  great  Central  Fund, 
which,  if  but  relieved  from  the  present  inordinate  pressure,  could  be 
made  so  greatly  more  available  for  our  Church's  prosperity  and  en- 
largement. We  are  all  the  less  scrupulous  in  urging  this,  because 
we  know  that,  but  for  their  own  intolerably  sluggishness  and  apathy, 
these  Associations  could  be  easily  made  to  contribute  more;  and  iso, 
though  thereby  less  burdensome  at  head-quarters  than  they  now  are, 
the  provision  of  the  minister  might  be  fully  kept  up,  and  with  this 
greatest  of  all  satisfaction  to  every  right-minded  people,  that  it  would 
be  more  honourably  come  by.  Were  the  .'318  Associations,  who  now 
give  less  than  £50  a  year,  lirought  up  by  our  provision  acting  in  the 
form  of  a  stimulus,  though  only  to  this  humble  rate  of  contribu- 
tion; or,  by  means  of  the  same  provision,  acting  in  the  form  of  a 
check,  were  matters  so  ordered  that  they  should  never  cost  us  more 
than  ^650  a  year  each,  I  tliink  we  might  answer  for  our  aid-giving 


FREE    CHURCH    OP    SCOTLAND.  35 

Associations  helping  up  this  extent  of  deficiency.  But  we  cannot 
answer  for  their  holding  out  against  a  larger  demand  or  deficiency 
than  this,  and  that  is  ever  growing  larger  with  every  exertion  made 
to  overtake  it.  They  will  infallibly  lose  heart  and  let  down  their 
present  liberalities,  if  they  find  that,  do  their  uttermost,  they,  in  vir- 
tue of  a  dead  weight  at  the  other  end  of  our  apparatus,  can  neither 
make  good  a  rising  dividend  for  the  present  necessities  of  our  cler- 
gymen, nor  an  extending  Church  for  the  far  more  serious,  because 
spiritual  and  moral,  necessities  of  a  destitute  population.  0  for  a 
voice  of  sufficient  emphasis  and  power,  to  send  abroad  this  lesson 
with  a  telling  efficacy  upon  all  our  congregations! 

7.  Tiie  mere  proposal  to  fix  a  ratio  between  the  contributions  and 
the  return  has,  we  understand,  been  strangely  felt  by  certain  of  the 
aid-receiving  congregations,  with  something  like  the  sense  of  an  in- 
jury done  to  them.  Should  they  give  £60,  they  will  get  back  £90; 
this  is  the  rate  at  which  we  should  like  to  deal  with  these  congrega- 
tions, up  to  £100  given  us  on  their  part,  and  £150  sent  back  to  them 
upon  ours.  So  that,  in  reference  to  them,  it  is  altogether  a  system 
of  dispensation.  Nor  is  there  a  country  in  Christendom  where  we 
should  expect  it  to  be  regarded  or  spoken  of  as  if,  instead  of  this,  it 
were  a  system  of  extortion.  The  aid-giving  congregations,  by 
whose  generosity  it  is  that  we  are  enabled  to  do  so  much,  might 
be  the  instruments  of  a  great  and  glorious  expansion  of  our  Church 
over  all  Scotland,  were  there  but  enough  of  effort,  and  enough  of  co- 
operation, throughout  all  its  provinces.  But  this  career,  so  full  of  pro- 
mise, and  of  richest  blessings  to  our  country,  will  soon  be  terminated, 
if,  instead  of  such  co-operation,  it  become  the  prevalent  habit  of  our 
poorer  Associations  to  give  as  little  to  the  Central  Fund,  and  take  or 
expect  as  much  from  it  as  possible.* 

8.  Other  proportions  might  be  fixed  on  than  one  and  a  half;  or 
other  rates  of  distribution  might  be  constructed,  yet,  so  as  to  secure 
the  operation  of  a  stimulus  or  a  check,  on  the  aid-receiving  con- 
gregations. There  would  in  this  case,  be  no  change  of  principle, 
but  still  such  a  change,  or  such  a  semblance  of  change,  as  might 
unsettle  the  confidence  of  men's  minds  in  the  stability  or  soundness 
of  the  system  altogether.  This  were  a  serious  evil,  but  the  evil 
were  greatly  enhanced,  did  the  change  amount  to  one  of  principle, 
and  be  wrong  after  all.  Now,  such  a  change  has  been  proposed, 
and  to  our  apprehension,  it  is  more  than  questionable,  we  think  mis- 
chievous. By  our  present  system,  as  is  known  to  all,  there  is  an 
allowance  given  to  every  minister  out  of  the  common  fund,  after 
which  each  congregation  is  left  to  supplement  this  allowance  at  their 
own  pleasure.  Now,  the  proposal  is,  to  abolish  these  supplements, 
to  lay  a  legislative  prohibition  of  the  Church  upon  them,  and  to  make 
it  imperative  that  all  which  is  given  for  the  support  of  our  ministers 
shall  pass  through  the  Central  Fund  in  Edinburgh,  and  be  distributed 
thence  in  the  proportions  of  a  certain  regulated  scale.  We  very 
much  fear  the  consequences  of  such  an  innovation,  and  for  the  fol- 
lowing reasons. 

*  See  Appendix,  No.  6. 


3«  ECONOMICS    OP    THE 

9.  First,  It  is  presntned  that  what  is  now  given  to  the  Sabbath 
collection  for  a  supplement  to  the  minister,  would  then  be  withheld 
and  given  to  the  Association;  but  this  is  a  great  mistake.  Tliat  it 
would  be  withheld  from  one  quarter,  there  is  every  reason  to  appre- 
hend; but  that  it  would,  therefore,  be  transferred  to  the  other  quarter, 
there  is  little  or  no  reason  to  hope.  The  habits  of  the  people  are  not 
so  easily  moulded,  nor  can  they  be  so  safely  tampered  with  as  some 
would  imagine.  There  might  be  arithmetic  in  the  argument  of 
those  who  contend  on  this  ground  for  the  abolition  of  the  supple- 
ment; but  most  assuredly  there  is  not  in  it  a  sound  or  experimental 
judgment  of  human  nature.  We  think  that  those  who  contend 
for  the  abolition  of  our  supplements  might  be  instructed  by  the  re- 
sults of  a  former  abolition,  even  that  of  the  seat-rents.  The  calcu- 
lation was,  that  all  which  might  be  remitted  to  the  people  on  the 
article  of  seat-rents  would  be  returned  by  them  at  the  church-door, 
so  as  to  swell  the  collections.  Has  it  turned  out  so?  or  rather,  has 
there  not  bi'cn  a  dead  loss  to  the  extent  of  many  thousand  pounds 
a-year  in  consequence?  We  do  not  know  liow  many  annual  thou- 
sands would,  in  like  manner,  be  thrown  away  by  the  abolition  of 
these  supplements.  In  keeping  wuh  this,  there  was  a  proposal 
.sometime  ago  to  abolish  class-fees.  It  would  just,  as  in  the  other 
cases,  have  proved  the  cause  of  an  additional  impoverishment.  Iti 
short,  if  we  give  in  to  all  the  proposals  of  all  the  abolitionists,  the 
Free  Church  is  on  a  fair  way  to  become  the  poorest  Church  in  Chris- 
tendom. 

10.  But  it  may  be  said  that  there  is  no  proper  analogy  between 
the  seat-rents  and  the  supplements.  The  money  yielded  by  the 
former  is  the  produce  of  a  compulsory  tax;  and  it  does  not  follow 
that,  because  it  is  remitted,  it  will  therefore  be  returned  in  the  new 
shape  of  a  voluntary  contribution.  But  what  is  given  at  the  church- 
door  for  a  supplement  is  a  free-will  offering,  the  produce  of  the 
hearer's  aflcction  for  his  minister,  or  of  a  desire  of  adding  to  his 
comfort,  by  making  over  to  him  a  certain  amount  of  carnal  things 
in  reiurn  for  his  spiritual  things.*  Now,  it  may  be  contended  that 
we  do  not  extinguish  this  affection,  we  do  not  even  weaken  the  im- 
pulse which  prompts  to  any  offering  at  all,  by  merely  shutting  up  the 
channel  through  which  it  flows  at  present,  and  opening  for  it  another 
channel  by  which  it  comes  back  in  equal  amount,  nay,  it  may  be,  in 
greater  amount  of  good  to  the  minister.  It  makes  no  diti'erence,  it 
may  be  argued,  whether  it  comes  to  him  immediately  through  the 
Sabbath  collection  of  his  own  church,  or  immediately  through  the 
organism  of  an  Association,  first  up  to  the  Central  Fund  in  Edin- 
burgh, and  then  back  again,  in  an  augmented  dividend,  at  the  term  of 
general  distribution.  We  should  have  given  way  to  this  considera- 
tion, had  it  not  been  for  our  frequent  experience  of  tlie  danger  which 
there  is  in  substituting  the  circuitous  for  the  direct,  when  we  want 
to  enlist  the  popular  concurrence  in  any  object  of  Christian  useful- 
ness. It  is  inconceivable  how  powerful  the  effect  of  it  is  in  placing 
the  object  more  out  of  sight,  and  so  more  out  of  influence.    You  will 

•  1  Cor.  ix.  11. 


FREE    CHURCH    OP   SCOTLAND.  3f 

get  a  people  to  join  you  for  the  doing  of  many  things,  if  to  be  done 
at  once,  which  you  will  not  get  them  to  do  if  to  be  done  by  a  pro- 
cess.    Even  ihe  interposal  of  but  one  step  in  the  way  of  a  desired 
accomplishment,  will  suffice  to  defer,  or  to  defeat  altogether,  the 
impression  which  a  good  cause  might  otherwise  have  made,  so  as  to 
open  both  the  hearts  and  the  hands  of  a  parochial  community  in  its 
favour.     The  money  given  at  their  own  church  door,  with  a  design 
and  destination  to  the  support  of  their  own  minister,  will  tell  far 
more  powerfully  on  the  liberal  dispositions  of  the  people,  than  if  the 
same  money  should  be  made  to  pass  out  of  sight  to  a  great  central 
reservoir  many  miles  off,  even  though  it  should  all  reissue  thence 
with  the  same  or  greater  amount  of  home-benefit  at  the  last.     To 
make  this  home-benefit  a  sure  and  a  lasting  one, it  should  be  preserved, 
out  and  out,  in  the  character  of  a  home-operation.     We  have  quite 
the  feeling  that  many  will  look  on  the  influence  we  now  speak  of  as 
too  fine  or  shadowy  for  being  at  all  practical.     So  it  might  appear, 
and  so  it  will  be  spoke  of  at  committees,  whether  among  men  of 
words  or  men  of  penmanship.    But  there  is  many  a  shrewd  peasant, 
whose  discernment  has  been  exercised  among  the  roughnesses  and  the 
realities  of  life,  who  will  appreliend,and  that  most  readily,  the  substan- 
tial truth  of  what  we  now  insist  upon.    And,  therefore,  we  should  ex- 
ceedingly regret  if  the  present  arrangement — first,  of  our  Associations 
for  the  Central  Fund,  and  then,  distinct  from  these,  of  our  Collec- 
tions for  a  Supplement,  were  at  all  to  be  disturbed  or  broken  up. 
"VVe  greatly  fear  that  it  would  just  turn  out  another  example  of  a 
suffering  and  a  loss  because  of  our  hazardous  innovations. 

11.  But  more  than  this.  We  have  two  distinct  and  separate 
duties  laid  before  us  in  two  distinct  and  separate  places  of  the  Bible; 
and  surely  for  the  performance  of  them,  there  might  be  found  sepa- 
rate places  in  a  man's  life,  separate  doings  in  the  course  of  a  man's 
varied  and  successive  history.  Let  us  address  ourselves  to  what  the 
Bible  makes  two  separate  duties  of,  by  means  of  two  separate  ope- 
rations. We  are  told  in  one  verse  of  the  Bible,  that  each  should 
mind  not  his  own  things  only,  but  the  things  of  others  also;  and 
through  the  medium  of  our  Associations,  and  of  the  Central  Fund, 
instituted  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  Church  at  large,  we  have  a 
method  provided  for  carrying  this  duty  into  effect.  We  are  told  in 
another  verse  of  the  Bible,  that  they  who  are  taught  should  commu- 
nicate to  him  who  teacheth  in  all  good  things;  and  for  the  fulfilment 
of  this  more  special  duty,  we  have  a  method  provided  through  the 
Sabbath  collections  at  the  churcli-door.  Leave  each  of  these  verses 
to  tell  with  their  own  distinct  authority  on  the  consciences  of  men. 
We  shall  not  mend  the  matter,  by  blending  or  implicating  the  two 
into  one.  We  have  no  right,  by  some  ingenious  processof  ours,  to  con- 
vert one  of  these  verses  into  a  sort  of  artificial  strainer,  through  which, 
and  through  which  alone,  forbidding  and  closing  up  all  other  chan- 
nels, to  get  at  tlie  accomplishment  of  the  duty  given  forth  in  the 
other  verse.  Both  are  injunctions  of  Holy  Scripture:  and,  with  but 
a  sufficient  strength  of  religious  principle,  we  shall  make  good  the 
observance  of  both.  To  affirm  the  incompatibility  of  two  distinct 
methods — the  one  for  upholding  a  general  ministry  in  Scotland,  the 
4 


3»  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

Other  for  upholding  the  ministry  of  our  own  particular  congregation, 
is  to  affirm  the  incompatibility  of  two  duties,  which  are  equally  and 
expressly  inculcated  upon  our  observance  in  the  word  of  God. 

12.  This  proposal  to  do  away  supplements  by  legislation,  reminds 
me  forcibly  of  the  disposition  that  there  was  two  years  back  to  do 
away,  and  by  force  of  legislation,  too,  all  ornaments  from  our  churches. 
The  imagination  then  was,  that  the  money  thus  rescued  from  the 
ornaments,  would  all  take  its  spontaneous  way  to  the  General  Build- 
ing Fluid;  and  the  imagination  now  is,  that  the  money  to  be  rescued 
from  those  supplements  on  which  it  is  at  present  expended,  will  be 
sure  to  find  its  way  into  the  Sustentation  Fund.  Both  imaginations 
betray  a  like  want  of  that  discernment  into  the  real  workings  and 
tendencies  of  human  nature,  on  which  all  wise  legislation  is  fomided. 
And  there  is  one  difterence  between  a  law  against  ornaments  and  a 
law  against  supplements,  which  makes  all  the  more  heavily  to  the 
disadvantage  of  the  latter.  The  one  law  comes  into  conflict  only  with 
a  taste,  the  other  law  comes  into  conflict  with  a  principle.  I  felt  quite 
secure  that  the  Building  Fund  would  not  sulfer,  though  we  should 
leave  the  friends  of  the  Free  Church  to  indulge  their  liking  for  orna- 
ments; and  I  feel  still  more  secure  that  the  Sustentation  Fund  will 
not  sufler  by  the  friends  of  the  Church  being  left  to  indulge  their  lik- 
ings, each  for  his  own  minister.  This  may  sound  paradoxical;  but 
"we  are  persuaded  that,  on  a  very  little  consideration,  there  will  be  no 
ditiiculty  in  admitting  the  truth  and  soberness  of  what  we  now  say. 
The  man  who  gives  a  large  subscription  to  beautify  and  adorn  his 
own  church,  or  who  gives  a  large  subscription  to  help  out  a  liberal 
provision  for  his  own  minister,  may  do  both  from  an  impulse  that  is 
altogether  natural — in  the  one  case  from  the  impulse  of  a  natural 
taste,  in  the  other  from  the  impulse  of  a  natural  affection.  Or  beside 
the  natural,  nay,  without  the  natural  influence  altogether,  he  may  do 
l)oth  these  things,  in  part  or  in  whole,  under  a  religious  impulse — in 
the  first  case,  under  a  sense  of  what  was  due  to  the  decency,  or  the 
dignity  of  a  sacred  edifice;  in  the  second,  under  the  still  more  direct 
sense  of  a  palpable  and  proclaimed  duty — seeing  that  the  Bible  tells 
us  to  give  of  our  carnal  things  to  the  man  who  teaches  us  Christianity, 
in  return  for  his  spiritual  things.  In  as  far  as  the  natural  element  is 
concerned,  we  may  by  a  legislation  put  a  check  on  the  expense  that 
v/as  to  be  lavished,  whether  on  ornaments  or  on  supplements  ;  but  if 
there  be  no  religion  on  the  part  of  the  giver  who  is  thus  thwarted, 
"we  shall  look  in  vain  for  the  money  tliat  has  been  thus  thrown  back 
upon  him,  finding  its  way  into  our  Central  Treasury.  Or,  on  the 
other  hand,  so  far  as  there  was  religion  in  the  munificence  for  local 
objects,  this  is  the  best  guaranty  for  a  like  munificence  in  behalf  of 
our  general  object.  At  all  events,  to  stifle  and  repress  one  religious 
exercise,  is  not  the  way  to  further,  but  rather  to  cripple  and  itifringe 
on  another  religious  exercise.  I  should  not  look  on  the  man  wlio 
liad  previously  been  thwarted  and  disappointed  in  some  object  that 
his  heart  was  set  upon,  as  at  all  a  hopeful  subject  for  an  application 
in  behalf  of  the  object  that  7??^^  licart  is  set  nj)on.  "We  have  been 
made  to  understand  that  there  is  a  congregation  in  our  Free  Church, 
■whose  supplement  to  their  minister  has  been  fifteen  times  greater  than 


PREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  39 

their  contribution  to  our  General  Fund.  Our  inference  is,  that  the 
natural  must  greatly  jKedoniinate  in  that  congregation;  but  not  that 
if  tliis  natural,  and  we  will  also  add,  this  good  natural  tendency,  were 
forcibly  overborne,  there  would  accrue  therefrom  any  of  its  now  actual 
produce  to  our  treasury.  The  right  way  of  proceeding  is  not  to  lay 
an  interdict  on  the  natural,  but  to  fan  and  foment  to  the  uttermost 
whatever  small  spark  there  might  be  of  the  religious,  both  in  this 
and  other  congregations.  We  have  distinct  scriptural  duties  for  both 
the  local  and  The  general;  and  distinct  methods  should  be  provided 
and  kept  up  for  the  respective  fulfilments  of  them.  They  will  no 
more  conflict  or  interfere  with  each  other  than  do  the  six  Schemes  of 
the  Church  interfere  with  each  other.  Let  us  but  invigorate  the  reli- 
gious spirit  of  our  people,  and  all  will  be  made  to  flourish.  Monstrous 
exceptions  will  no  doubt  occur  among  our  six  hundred  churches. 
But  they  will  not  long  stand  their  ground  against  the  publicity  of 
their  annual  exposure;  and  still  more  will  they  be  sure  to  give  way 
before  the  growth  of  a  right  understanding,  and  of  sound  and  good 
principle  in  the  midst  of  us. 

13.  We  can  perceive  what  that  is,  which  sways  with  the  abolition- 
ists. They  calculate  that  the  less  the  money  which  is  given  for  one 
object,  the  more  will  remain  to  be  given  for  another  object.  Their 
computation  turns  upon  the  means,  ours  again  turns  upon  the  motives. 
It  is  true  that  there  is  a  limit  to  the  means;  and,  on  the  strength  of 
this  consideration,  we  hope  that  the  schemes  and  objects  of  our 
Church  will  not  be  capriciously  or  indefinitely  multiplied.  But  we 
are  not  yet  within  sight  of  this  limit,  nay,  so  far  are  we  from  having 
come  into  contact  with  it,  that  all  which  is  given — we  do  not  say  by 
individuals,  many  of  whom  have  really  made  sacrifices  for  the  cause 
— that  all  which  is  given,  we  mean  collectively,  and  in  the  aggregate, 
is  but  a  merest  bagatelle,  when  compared  with  all  which  might  and 
ought  to  be  given.     Speaking  generally,  the  boasted  liberalities  of  the 

.Free  Church  have  not  told  with  the  least  sensible  encroachment  on 
the  style  and  expenditure  of  families.  We  are  yet  miserably  short  of 
the  example  of  Ilim,  who,  though  rich,  yet  for  our  sakes  became 
poor.  We  therefore,  on  the  moral  estimate,  would  continue  to  urge 
forward,  because  most  assuredly  there  is  nothing  yet  in  the  arithmeti- 
cal estimate  that  should  discourage  or  keep  us  back.  We  are  yet  a  very 
great  way  ofl"  from  the  necessity  of  laying  a  prohibition,  or  a  retrench- 
ment, on  one  good  thing,  for  the  sake  of  another  good  thing.  Both 
might,  and  both  should,  be  fully  provided  for.  Each  minister  should 
amply  experience  the  kindness  of  his  own  congregation;  and  each 
congregation  should,  at  the  same  time,  cast  a  wide  and  watchful  eye 
over  the  spiritual  necessities  of  Scotland. 

14.  But,  still  more  grievous  than  that,  in  so  many  instances,  the 
supplements  should  exceed  the  contributions  to  the  Central  Fund,  is 
it  that  in  so  many  parts  of  the  country  there  should  be  few  or  no  sup- 
plements at  all.  But  even  for  this  I  would  not  abandon  them.  The 
grand  panacea  for  this  and  all  other  deficiencies  is  the  increase  of  reli- 
gion. And,  besides,  at  the  time  of  the  Disruption  our  people  had  all 
to  learn;  and  yet,  in  a  very  great  number,  perhaps  the  majority  of  in- 
stances, the  habit  has  still  to  be  formed.    There  are  some  who  ascribe 


TO  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

the  general  remissness  in  this  particular  to  the  pressure  of  other,  but 
these  initial  expenses — as  the  debt,  for  example,  upon  our  new-built 
churches,  which  will  soon  be  liquidated.  I  do  not  ascribe  much  to 
this,  or  at  least  so  much  as  to  look  for  the  spontaneous  rise  of  supple- 
ments, by  a  movement  from  the  people  themselves,  after  that  these 
expenses  have  been  done  away.  They  need  to  be  plainly  and 
minutely  lessoned  in  what  is  good:  and  that  they  should  become  fit 
subjects  for  such  lessons,  I  look  mainly,  with  the  blessing  of  God,  to 
the  efforts  of  our  spiritual  men.  And,  though  not  on  the  subject  of 
the  Associations,  yet  on  that  of  the  supplements,  there  are  strong  and 
natural  delicacies  among  the  clergy  which  I  fully  sympathize  with. 
This  of  all  others  is  an  occasion  on  which  the  enlightened  lay  friends 
of  the  Church  might  render  an  opportune  and  most  important  service. 
There  might  be  agencies  of  such  formed  in  every  Presbytery,  who 
might  perform  their  annual  visits  to  every  parish,  and  take  special  cog- 
nizance, as  well  as  give  special  instruction,  in  a  matter  so  indispensa- 
ble to  the  requisite  comfort  of  ministers,  but  from  the  care  of  which 
they  ought  to  be  relieved. 

15.  Lastly,  to  legislate  against  these  supplements,  is  to  venture  on 
a  legislation  which  we  cannot  compel,  and  which  certainly  would,  I 
had  almost  said  which  ought,  to  be  evaded.  To  enact  where  we  can- 
not enforce  is  a  most  impolitic  waste  of  authority,  and  must  serve  to 
"weaken  every  government,  whether  civil  or  ecclesiastical,  which  at- 
tempts it.  We  should  rather  follow,  in  so  far,  the  example  of  the 
Building  Committee.  There  was  a  strong  disposition  among  them 
to  legislate  against  ornaments;  but  the  method  in  fact  which  they 
wisely  adopted,  was  to  institute  the  check  of  granting  no  aid,  save 
in  those  cases  where  the  church  was  built  so  economically  as  to  cost 
no  more  than  at  the  rate  of  15s.  per  sitting.  They  legislated  in  that 
where  they  liad  the  power,  and  abstained  from  legislating  in  that 
where  they  had  not  the  power.  It  were  well  if  the  Sustentation 
Committee  had  authority  for  doing  the  same;  to  proclaim  such  a  rule* 
of  distribution,  as  that  if  Associations  will  give  little — whether  be- 
cause they  give  much  for  supplements,  or  from  any  other  cause — they 
will  receive  proportionably  little.  The  enactment  of  one  and  a  half 
answers  this  purpose,  though  there  might  be  other  and  perhaps  bet- 
ter ways  of  it.  It  were  the  removal  for  instance  of  a  mighty  incu- 
bus upon  our  operations,  if  it  could  be  made  law,  that  in  no  instance 
we  should  give  more  than  iS'SO  to  any  minister,  over  and  above  what 
we  received  from  his  Association;  to  which,  might  it  be  added,  that 
the  coimexion  of  an  Association  with  the  Sustentation  Committee 
should  only  commence,  when  its  own  coniribution  came  to  £50 
a-year.  Without  some  check  of  this  sort,  1  predict  with  all  confi- 
dence, but  in  great  heaviness  of  heart,  that  sooner  or  later  we  must 
lay  our  account  with  a  most  fearful  overthrow;  or  at  least  that  a  sore 
paralysis  will  be  inflicted  on  the  support  and  enlargement  of  the 
Church,  which  might  otherwise,  in  respect  of  both  these  interests,  be 
made  to  advance  most  prosperously.* 

•  See  Appendix,  No.  7. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  41 


SECTION    V. — ON    CHURCH    EXTENSION. 

1.  Instead  of  Extension,  the  Free  Church  may  be  said,  in  one 
sense,  to  have  nndergone  the  reverse  process.  As  a  proof  of  this,  at 
the  time  of  the  Disruption,  it  had  upwards  of  800  Associations. 
They  now  stand,  at  least  the  paying  ones,  at  775.  The  reason  of 
this  is,  that  we  were  not  able  to  supply  all  the  places  where  such 
a  palpable  manifestation  was  given  of  an  interest  in  the  Free  Church, 
as  the  formation  of  an  Association  in  its  favour;  we  could  not  supply 
them  all  at  once  with  ecclesiastical  labourers.  We  have  certainly  not 
been  wanting  in  our  endeavours  to  remedy  this  defect;  and,  as  a 
proof  of  it,  the  number  of  our  ordained  ministers  has  been  increased 
from  470  to  about  650.  There  still  remain  to  us  upwards  of  a  hun- 
dred places  where  Associations  exist,  but  which  can  only  as  yet  have 
a  partial  service  rendered  to  them  by  means  of  Catechists  or  Proba- 
tioners; and  we  have  some  few  noble  instances  where  congregations 
have  kept,  and  are  still  keeping  themselves  afloat  by  the  gratuitous 
labours  of  the  pious  and  the  good  among  their  own  members,  who 
assemble  our  adherents  throughout  the  neighbourhood  on  the  Sab- 
bath, and  conduct  public  worship  in  the  midst  of  them.  Still,  how- 
ever, and  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at,  upwards  of  thirty  of  our  origi- 
nal Associations  have  gone  into  extinction;  and  with  them  the  germs 
of  as  many  future  congregations.  So,  though  in  one  sense  the  Free 
Church  has  been  extended  within  these  two  years — that  is,  in  hav- 
ing added  about  ISO  to  the  number  of  her  ordained  ministers;  in 
another  sense  she  has  retrograded,  by  having  lost  no  small  part  of  the 
ground  she  occupied  at  the  first,  through  the  dissolution  of  so  many 
of  her  primitive  Associations.  Our  explanation  of  the  manner  in 
which  we  think  that  these  might  have  been  preserved,  and  each 
made  the  nucleus  of,  and  at  length  ripened  into  a  future  church,  will 
at  the  same  time  show  by  what  steps  I  conceive  that  we  might  still 
preserve  and  forward  our  Non-ministerial  Associations,  of  which  we 
have  yet  upwards  of  a  hundred;  nay,  may  not  only  recover  all  that 
we  have  lost,  but  make  indefinite  additions  to  our  territory. 

2.  We,  in  the  first  instance,  would  have  the  Non-ministerial  As- 
sociations made  the  objects  of  a  distinct  management.  Of  course, 
so  soon  as  a  congregation  connected  with  any  one  of  these  was  fur- 
nished with  a  regularly  ordained  minister,  it  would  merge  into  the 
general  system;  and  its  Association  would  take  a  place  among  those 
which  stood  related  to  the  Sustentation  Committee,  when  it  would  be 
subject  to  all  such  provisions  and  regulations  as  might  be  adopted  for 
the  support  of  the  Free  Church.  In  other  words,  so  long  as  it  was 
in  the  transition  state  it  would  remain  under  a  sort  of  outstanding 
management  by  itself;  and  thence  pass  into  the  hands  of  the  Susten- 
tation Conmiittee,  so  soon  as  its  locality  had  been  constituted  into  a 
complete  and  regular  charge. 

3.  There  is  an  important  difference  that  vi^e  would  earnestly  recom- 
mend between  the  disposition  of  the  fund  raised  by  the  Ministerial 
Associations  and  under  the  charge  of  the  Sustentation  Committee, 
and  of  the  fund  raised  by  these  Non-ministerial  Associations.     The 


4« 


ECONOMICS    OP    THE 


former  fund  has  been  treated  as  one  large  aggregate,  to  be  dealt  with 
and  distributed  according  to  certain  general  and  prescribed  niethods. 
But  in  the  management  of  the  latter  fund,  we  would  have  separate 
accounts  with  each  of  the  Associations;  and,  instead  of  merging  the 
contributions  of  any  into  a  general  fund  which  should  be  rnade  ap- 
plicable to  the  benefit  of  all  the  otfiers,  we  would  so  proceed  as  that 
each  contribution  should  be  most  distinctly  available  for  the  sole  and 
distinct  benefit  of  the  locality  from  which  it  came.  By  thus  individ- 
ualizing each,  we  should  put  into  operation  the  sense  and  stimulus  of 
an  individual  interest,  so  as  not  only  to  keep  up  their  present  rate  of 
exertion,  but  so  as  to  keep  it  constantly  on  the  tendency  towards  an 
increase.  And  here  let  me  insist  on  the  capital  importance  of  the 
communications  from  head  quarters  to  other  associations  being,  to  a 
certain  extent,  personal.  And  for  this  purpose,  the  agents  we  have 
already  recommended  for  the  Sustentation  Committee  should  be 
available  for  this  service;  men  of  intelligence  and  piety,  who  might 
be  deputed  on  every  fit  occasion  to  repair  to  the  spot,  and,  if  neces- 
sary, to  spend  days  of  converse  and  explanation  and  encouragement 
with  the  friends  of  the  Free  Church,  who  might  any  where  be  taking 
measures  for  having  a  regularly  served  congregation  in  the  midst  of 
them,  and  who  are  cherishing  the  prospect  of  its  soon  being  realized. 
Let  me  unfold  my  own  view  of  the  distinct  steps  by  which  this  truly 
interesting  process  might  be  carried  forward,  from  these  its  first  bud- 
dings, in  any  given  locality,  to  a  final  accomplishment. 

4.  The  very  first  intimation  of  such  a  movement  in  any  quarter 
might  form  a  sufficient  call  for  a  journey  by  one  of  our  travelling 
agents.  If  an  association  have  not  yet  been  formed  in  the  place,  he 
could  commence  and  originate  one.  He  can  set  them  on  the  right 
way  of  proceeding,  and  make  the  whole  progress  and  ultimate  fulfil- 
ment of  it  intelligible  to  our  friends.  He  can  let  them  understand  the 
difficulties  of  the  Church,  as  proceeding  from  the  want  of  ecclesiastical 
labourers,  which  meanwhile  we  are  doing  our  uttermost  to  supply. 
He  can  ascertain  if  there  be  any  among  them  willing  and  qualified 
for  a  Sabbath-service,  and  who  might  give  his  gratuitous  labours  to 
the  cause.  If  not,  he  can  state  for  how  much  a  year  they  might  have 
the  services  of  a  Catechist  among  them;  or  for  how  much  more, 
if  they  wish  to  have  a  higher  service,  they  might  have  the  labours  of 
a  Probationer.  Or,  at  this  initial  stage  of  the  operations,  the  agent 
might  assist  them  in  laying  down  a  scheme  by  which  to  partition  the 
services,  whether  of  a  catechist  or  a  probationer,  between  the  locality 
now  visited,  and  other  localities  in  the  neighbourliood  wliere  there 
are  Associations  already  established,  or  on  (he  point  of  being  so.  We 
are  quite  sure  that  there  is  scarcely  any  district  in  the  land,  where 
Associations  might  not  be  so  stimulated  by  a  fostering  operation  of 
this  sort,  as  to  yield  enough  for  their  initial  expenses;  or,  in  so  far  as 
they  chose  to  be  satisfied  with  gratuitous  services,  where  a  prosper- 
ous beginning  might  not  be  made  of  a  fund  for  the  erection  of  tlieir 
intended  church.  Such  an  object  in  the  distance  would  have  a  mighty 
effect  in  calling  forth  the  liberalities  of  the  people;  and  thus  it  is  that 
a  rate  and  habit  of  giving  might  be  commenced,  which  need  never  be 
let  down;  and  so  prove  the  guaranty  of  almost,  if  not  altogether,  a 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  43 

sufficiency  within  themselves,  for  both  an  educational  and  an  eccle- 
siastical provision  adequate  to  the  moral  and  spiritual  wants  of  their 
families.  These  ulterior  objects  furnish  a  mighty  inducement  both  to 
gather  the  requisite  means  and  to  economize  them.  Beside  the  pros- 
pect of  having  their  church,  there  should  be  set  before  them  the 
advantages  of  their  future  connexion  with  the  Sustentation  Fund,  so 
that,  should  they  work  up  the  annual  produce  of  their  Association  to 
any  sum  short  of  £100,  they  would  get,  in  addition,  one-half  of  what 
they  had  received  from  the  Central  Treasury;  and  thus  upon  reaching 
the  £100,  they  will  secure  £150  for  their  future  minister.  We  are 
quite  sure  that  by  such  a  particular  and  piece-meal  dealing  with  each 
Association,  severally  and  on  its  own  account,  we  should  work  up  an 
immensely  speedier  and  immensely  greater  result  than  ever  will  be 
obtained  under  a  system  of  mere  circulars  and  written  communica- 
tions; and  when,  from  the  very  outset,  every  motive  to  exertion  is 
superseded  by  the  hope  of  getting  all  from  Edinburgh,  however  little 
they  might  do  for  themselves.  We  cannot  imagine  a  worse  education 
to  begin  with,  or  one  more  fitted  to  raise  an  insuperable  barrier  in  the 
way  of  aught  like  a  speedy  or  large  church  extension.  And  yet  it 
has  been  greatly  too  much  the  habit  hitherto,  and  from  which,  if  we 
indeed  aspire  to  the  glorious  achievements  of  a  great  and  prosperous 
Home  Mission,  we  cannot  too  soon  recover  ourselves.  We  are  quite 
sure  that  if  rightly  gone  about,  such  a  method  would  obtain  the  ready 
coalescence  of  every  little  knot  of  adherents  in  all  parts  of  the  land. 
They  would,  if  but  thus  personally  dealt  with  from  the  first  by  one 
of  our  own  visitants,  and  they  had  the  whole  bearings  and  necessities 
of  the  case  christianly  and  reasonably  set  before  them,  they  would 
easily  be  led  to  inake  such  eftorts  and  sacrifices,  as  yet  we  have  no 
imagination,  or  at  least  have  had  no  experience  of.  We  could  easily, 
at  this  rate,  have  preserved  all  our  Associations,  and  may  still  do 
much  in  the  way  of  restoring  them  ;  besides,  that  by  thus  seizing  on 
every  intimation  of  a  desire  for  our  countenance  and  aid  from  the 
friends  of  the  Free  Church,  in  whatever  quarter  of  Scotland  it  might 
come  from,  we  should,  with  little  or  no  burden  on  any  of  our  Central 
Funds,  multiply  our  additional  or  new  stations  all  over  the  land. 

5.  Such  is  our  confidence  of  success  in  this  mode  of  proceeding, 
and  withal  so  exceedingly  genial  and  pleasurable  is  the  work  of  car- 
rying it  forward,  that  I  fondly  conceived  the  purpose  of  at  least  de- 
voting one  summer,  partly  to  correspondence,  and  partly  to  personal 
visitation  and  actual  converse  with  the  Scottish  worthies  in  various 
places  of  our  Non-ministerial  Associations;  whether  already  formed, 
or  only  yet  in  embryo — but  composing  altogether  the  nursery  of  our 
Free  Church's  future  enlargements.  To  have  luxuriated  for  days  m 
so  many  little  neighbourhoods  of  homebred  and  honest  piety,  would 
have  been  a  perfect  feast  of  the  aff'ections;  and  to  have  worked  up 
so  many  specimens  of  what  can  be  achieved  in  the  way  of  liberality 
and  support  for  the  Church  which  they  love  even  among  the  rudest 
and  remotest  hamlets  of  the  country,  would  have  set  the  seal  of  an 
experimental  demonstration  on  a  lesson  which  we  fear  has  yet  to  be 
learned.  To  my  own  infinite  regret,  I  broke  down  in  the  course  of 
a  few  weeks  after  I  had  begun  this  charge;  which  I  all  the  more 


4»4  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

lament,  as  being  convinced  that  to  begin  aright  in  the  rndimental 
stages  of  this  process,  is  the  only  way  by  which,  in  the  state  of 
vohintaryisni  on  which  we  are  now  cast,  to  spread  and  to  consohdate 
a  comnjensnrate  system  of  Christian  instruction,  that  might  fill  up  all 
vacancies,  and  leave  no  place  even  among  the  poorest  of  our  people 
unprovided  for.  But  what  I  could  not  do  even  on  the  small  scale  in 
my  own  person,  might  still  be  done  on  the  great  scale  by  our  well- 
selected  agents,  whose  delightful  office  it  should  be  to  fan  the  embers 
of  phiIanthroj)y  and  piety  in  every  place  to  which  they  are  called, 
till  matured  into  the  blessed  fruits  of  well-taught  schools  and  well- 
served  churches,  throughout  the  whole  length  and  breadth  of  our 
Scottish  territory. 

6.  We  have  no  doubt  of  the  result,  should  the  system  we  have 
now  sketched  so  imperfectly,  be  but  fairly  and  vigorously  set  agoing. 
But  we  have  great  fears  that  it  will  not  be  set  agoing.  Our  dread  is 
lest  the  rulers  of  our  Church  should  be  greatly  too  much  occupied 
with  the  affairs  of  the  inner  department  to  looic  abroad  on  the  out- 
fields of  Scotland.  We  have  never  been  able  to  command  an  ade- 
quate sympathy  on  the  subject  of  Church  Extension;  each  congre- 
gation being  engrossed  with  the  care  of  its  own  prosperity,  and  the 
Church  at  large  finding  ample  scope  for  its  attention  and  energy  in 
the  matters  of  their  existing  congregations.  But  what  we  are  most 
afraid  of  is  the  adoption  of  some  such  financial  measure,  as  would 
lay  a  sure  arrest  on  aught  like  an  indefinite  enlargement  that  might 
keep  pace  with  the  moral  and  spiritual  wants  of  the  community. 
And  should  it  so  turn  out,  the  Free  Church  must  be  satisfied  with 
the  same  limited  and  sectarian  position  which  is  occupied  by  any 
other  of  our  religious  denominations.  Meanwhile,  the  advancing 
tide  of  profligacy  and  infidelity,  both  in  town  and  country,  will  make 
head  against  the  puny  efibrts  of  all  the  Churches  put  together;  and 
the  horrors  of  a  desolating  anarchy  will  expiate  at  length  the  crim- 
inal neglect  both  of  past  and  present  generations.* 

SECTION  VI. GENERAL  VIEW  OF    THE  SCHEMES  AND  OBJECTS  OF  THE 

CHURCH. 

1.  Let  these  be  fully  provided  for,  but  do  not  let  there  be  an  in- 
definite multiplication  of  them.  It  were  well  if  the  friends  of  the 
Free  Church  were  set  at  ease  upon  this  matter.  They  should  not  be 
exposed  to  demands  in  such  rapid  and  endless  succession,  as  might 
well  awaken  the  apprehension  or  the  feeling  that  (hey  are  quite 
interminable.  Some  of  these,  even  though  not  of  the  ordinary  and 
recognized  class,  have  undoubtedly  been  well  selected,  and  carried 
at  once  the  assent  and  willing  liberality  of  the  public  along  with  them. 
The  School-Subscription,  under  the  able  conduct  of  JNlr.  McDonald, 
forms  an  apposite  example  of  this.  We  think  a  subscription  for 
Manses  would  form  another;  and  would  Mr,  Guthrie  undertake  an 
object  which  goes  so  near  to  the  Scottish  heart,  we  feel  that,  with  his 

•  See  Appendix,  No.  8. 


FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND.  45 

powers  of  command  over  tliose  national  sympathies  in  which  his 
own  heart  shares  so  largely,  his  appeals, carried  IVom  neighbourhood 
to  neighbourhood,  would  be  quite  irresistible.*  There  can  be  no 
quarrel,  but  the  contrary  with  either  of  these  objects,  which,  so  soon 
as  proposed,  carry  an  instant  and  popular  acquiesence  along  with 
them;  and  wiiich  may  be  overtaken  by  one  great  effort,  or  at  most 
by  such  an  effort  repeated  after  intervals  of  many  years  or  of  whole 
generations.  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  few  things  which  have 
gratified  us  more  than  that  the  fabric  of  our  College  should  have  been 
provided  for,  and  without  any  appeal  to  the  public  at  large,  by  the 
munificence  of  twenty  individuals  ;t  and  by  a  like  munificence,  on 
the  part  say  of  fifty  or  a  hundred  individuals,  we  do  hope  that  the 
present  effort  which  is  now  making  for  the  endowent  of  bursaries 
will  be  crowned  with  success. 

2.  But  there  are  things  of  perennial  necessity  which  can  only  be 
met  and  provided  for  by  a  liberality  alike  perennial.  The  rare  and 
occasional  objects,  or  such  as  can  be  overtaken  by  one  great  effort, 
and  once  for  all,  these  might  be  settled  and  set  by  at  a  single  start, 
and  under  the  power  of  an  impulse.  But  for  the  constant  atid  ever 
recurring  necessities  of  the  Church,  the  thing  required  is  not  the  ex- 
citement of  an  impulse,  but  the  establishment  of  a  habit;  as  the 
Sustentation  Fund,  which  can  surely  and  rightly  be  upheld  in  no 
other  way  than  by  a  habit  of  punctuality  among  the  collectors.  But 
there  are  other,  though  all  of  them  minor  objects  to  this  main  and 
central  one,  which  would  require  in  like  manner  to  be  worked  into 
the  system  of  the  Church's  operations,  a  thing  not  to  be  done  by 
evanescent  impulses,  but  only  by  enduring  habits.  And  therefore 
we  hold  it  very  fortunate,  that,  by  a  mere  change  in  the  direction  of 
a  habit  at  least  two  hundred  years  old,  there  seems  a  patent  way  for 
the  accomplishment  of  all  which  a  Christian  Church  should  be  most 
desirous  to  realize.  We  mean  the  good,  old,  and  universal  habit  of 
a  Sabbath-collection  at  our  church-doors. 

3.  We  would  not  venture  to  prescribe,  but  with  all  deference 
would  we  submit  the  following  suggestion  for  the  consideration  of 
tiie  Church:  Might  not  the  first  Sunday  of  every  month  be  singled 
out  for  a  collection  in  favour  of  some  specific  and  understood  object, 
leaving  the  forty  remaining  Sabbath-collections  throughout  the  year 
to  take  their  present  course  towards  the  local  fund  for  supplementing 
the  minister's  dividend?  Out  of  the  twelve  monthly  and  extraordi- 
nary collections,  six,  or  one-half  their  number,  might  be  assigned  to 
the  Schemes  of  the  Assembly,  leaving  the  other  halt',  or  six  more, 
of  these  extraordinary  collections  to  the  determination  of  the  Dea- 
cons' Courts,  or  to  be  expended  on  any  such  objects  as  might  seem 
good  to  that  body.     In  this  way  there  would,  from  these  extraordi- 

*  Mr.  Guthrie  has,  since  this  was  written  (a  year  ago)  undertaken  and  prosecuted  this 
great  work,  and  nobly  has  he  fulfilled  it,  having  obtained,  within  the  brief  space  of  eight 
months,  the  magnificent  subscrij)lion  of  more  than  one  hundred  thousand  pounds. 

t  Through  a  process  of  quiet  and  influcntiul  correspondence  on  the  part  of  Dr.  Welsh. 
But  it  is  now  right  to  add,  that,  in  virtue  of  tlie  great  rise  in  the  price  of  labour  and  ma- 
terials, this  sum  turns  out  to  be  deficient  by  several  thousand  pouiids. 


46  ECONOMICS    OF    THE 

nary  collections,  be  six  general  objects  provided  for  as  laid  down  by 
the  Assembly,  and  six  such  local  objects  as  the  local  anthorities  of 
each  congregation  might  choose  to  fix  npon.  Let  ns  here  specify 
the  six  Assembly  ohjecfs  in  what  I  conceive  to  be  the  order  of  then- 
importance,  or  rather  in  the  order  and  according  to  the  magni- 
tude of  their  necessities;  First,  the  Home  Mission  Scheme;  second, 
the  Scheme  for  School  Education;  third, for  Foreign  Missions;  fourth, 
for  Colonial  Churches;  fifth,  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Jews;  and 
sixth,  for  the  Annual  Expenses  of  the  College,  which,  though  the 
last  and  least  in  regard  to  the  amount  of  collections  required,  is  cer- 
tainly not  the  least  in  the  order  of  importance,  the  object  being  to 
uphold  the  academic  education  of  the  Free  Church,  or  the  education 
of  students  for  the  ministry. 

4.  Tlie  produce  of  the  other  six  extraordinary  collections  should 
be  placed  entirely  at  the  disposal  and  under  the  direction  of  the 
Deacons'  Courts.  They  need  be  at  no  loss  for  objects;  and  the  right 
determination  of  these  were  a  fit  exercise  for  their  Christian  wisdom 
and  charity.  Of  course,  there  are  the  usual  congregational  expenses, 
■which  would  require  to  be  thus  defrayed;  and,  when  they  judged  it 
expedient,  there  would  be  occasional  collections  for  the  poor  of  the 
congregation.  It  is  thus,  too,  that  all  the  constituents  of  a  right 
ecclesiastical  economy,  as  school-rents  and  salaries  and  repairs,  parish 
libraries,  even  school-houses  and  manses,  might  be  helped  out,  and 
at  length  wholly  provided  for.  The  spirit  and  good  will  of  the  peo- 
ple would  speedily  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of  what  themselves  saw  to 
be  right,  and  would  soon  experience  to  be  practicable.  It  were  sure 
to  keep  up  iheir  habit  of  liberality,  nay,  to  encourage  and  extend  it, 
did  they  see  that  every  year  their  own  apparatus  of  Christian  useful- 
ness was  rising  before  their  eyes  into  greater  completeness  and  re- 
spectability. There  should  be  nothing  in  the  multitude  of  the  col- 
lections to  disquiet,  for  in  proportion  as  these  are  multiplied,  they 
can  subdivide;  and  no  one  who  understands  either  the  policy  or  the 
principle  of  true  religious  benevolence,  would  ever  wish  them  to 
give  more  than,  under  the  dictatesof  conscience  and  Christian  feel- 
ing, they  are  prepared  to  give  cheerfully.  But  1  would  not  have 
these  objects  multiplied  at  random,  so  as  to  be  constantly  shooting 
aliead  of  what  the  people  are  laying  their  account  with.  In  a  few 
years,  it  would  settle  down  into  a  regular  and  unvarying  method, 
the  use  and  wont  of  twelve  special,  and  forty  ordinary  Sabbath  col- 
lections in  the  twelvemonth  ;  and  we  feel  persuaded,  that  in  the  vast 
majority  of  instances,  these  last  would  grow  in  amount,  when  their 
destination  came  to  be  understood,  and  nothitig  was  made  to  inter- 
vene between  the  comfort  of  the  minister  and  the  kindness  of  the 
hearers  among  whom  ho  laboured.  This  needs  not  supersede,  if 
found  necessary,  a  distinct  and  supplemental  eilbrl,on  the  part  of  the 
officials  or  leading  men  in  the  congregation,  doing  what  in  many  in- 
stances I  understand  ihcy  arc  now  doing;  taking  measures  that  the 
income  of  their  clergyman  shall  at  least  not  fall  short  of  what  they 
judge  to  be  a  decent  sutficieucy,  while,  at  the  same  time,  they  would 
rejoice,  if,  as  the  fruit  of  a  spontaneous  affection  on  the  part  of  the 


FREE    CHURCH    OP    SCOTLAND.  47 

congregation,  the  amount  of  the  collective  offerings  should  supersede 
the  necessity  of  any  further  care  or  exertion  on  their  part.* 

SECTION  VII. GENERAL    CONSIDERATIONS. 

1.  On  the  strength  of  the  above  explanations,  we  would  earnestly 
wish  the  concurrence,  the  practical  concurrence,  of  all  other  evan- 
gelical communions  in  this  great  work.  Why  should  they  not  adopt, 
too,  the  device  of  a  General  Fund,  so  that,  instead  of  confining  their 
efforts  in  a  great  degree  to  the  support  of  their  existing  congregations, 
they  might  have  the  same  principle  of  expansion  which  we  are 
labouring  to  keep  in  operation  among  ourselves?  We  are  all  the 
more  desirous  of  this,  when  we  think  on  the  mighty,  nay,  the  yearly 
increasing  spaces  of  wild  and  outlandish  territory  which  are  still  un- 
occupied. Are  there  not  myriads  of  immortal,  yet  perishing  because 
neglected  spirits  in  Edinburgh  and  Glasgow,  and  other  large  towns 
of  Scotland,  as  well  as  in  hundreds  of  outfields  throughout  the  coun- 
try at  large,  which  would  require  the  united  efforts  of  all  the  wise  and 
good  in  our  land  for  many  years  to  come?  Why  put  oflf  for  another 
hour,  we  do  not  say  the  fulfilment,  but  at  all  events  the  commence- 
ment of  this  glorious  enterprise;  for  in  truth  this,  though  forming  the 
greatest  moral  problem  of  our  day,  has  scarcely  been  entered  on.  In 
our  city  wastes,  in  our  manufacturing  villages,  in  many,  very  many 
of  our  remote  and  rural  hamlets;  in  all  these  put  together, are  there 
thousands  of  families  who  live  in  guilt  and  die  in  darkness,  and  have 
never  up  to  this  moment  been  the  objects  of  aught  like  an  adequate 
effort  for  their  Christian  education.  Should  not  all  who  love  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  sincerity,  form  themselves  into  agencies,  and 
select  their  respective  fields  of  operation  ?  And  though  each  of  these 
bodies  will  labour  far  more  effectively  when  labouring  apart  from 
each  other,  or  when  not  overlaid  by  the  weight  of  that  very  usual, 
but  at  the  same  time  very  useless  apparatus — we  mean  the  incubus 
of  a  complex  and  cumbrous  committeeship — yet  this  need  not  hinder 
a  busy  converse  and  comparison  of  their  several  methods  on  the  part 
of  these  distinct  bands  of  philanthropists,  the  individual  members  of 
which  might  often  meet  together  in  social  party,  and  there  provoke 
each  other  to  love,  and  more  especially  to  this  great  and  good  work. 
And  another  mighty  benefit  might  be  expected  from  such  a  co-opera- 
tion as  this.  A  common  object  of  Christian  charity,  zealously  prose- 
cuted by  all,  will  lead  to  a  more  general  community  of  thought  and 
feeling  betwixt  them.  It  would  speed  the  cause  of  Christian  union  at 
an  infinitely  more  rapid  pace  than  ever  will  be  effected  by  Synods  and 
Assemblies,  labouring  in  conjunct  deliberation  to  new-model  their 
formularies,  and  settle  their  articles  of  agreement.     Let  us  be  one 

*  In  some  places  where  seat-rents  have  been  abolished,  the  voluntary  expedient  of 
seat-offerings  has  been  substituted  ;  and  out  of  these  not  only  are  the  precentor  and 
beadle  paid,  but  church  repairs  arc  provided  for,  and  any  remainder  of  debt  upon  the 
fabric  is  gradually  liquidated.  The  result  of  the  abolition  of  seat-rents  illustrates  very 
clearly  the  distinction  between  an  impulse  and  a  habit.  Where  they  had  been  long- 
established,  they  would  never  have  been  grudged;  but  now  tliat  they  are  done  away, 
they  are  not  compensated,  as  it  was  fancied  they  would  have  been,  by  an  increase  in  the 
collections.    The  habit  of  larger  collections  has  not  yet  been  formed. 


48  ECONOMICS    OF    THE    FREE    CHURCH    OF    SCOTLAND. 

• 

in  well-doing;  and  this,  wherever  there  is  real  sincerity  and  right 
good  earnest,  will  prove  the  high-road  to  being  one  in  sentiment.  A 
oneness  in  conduct  will  often  lead  to  an  essential  oneness  of  creed — 
for  the  reflex  influence  of  the  latter  upon  the  former  is  far  greater 
than  perhaps  logicians  and  controversialisis  in  theology  are  willing 
to  allow.  And  so  may  we  speed  onward  the  accomplishment  of  our 
blessed  Saviour's  prayer, even  that  palpable  unity  among  Christians, 
which  He  has  announced  as  an  indispensable  stepping-stone  to  the 
world's  regeneration.* 

2.  We  find  that  in  this  section,  which  we  had  devoted  to  general 
considerations,  we  must  fall  greatly  short  of  what  our  conception  or 
our  aim  was  at  the  first,  and  of  what  our  desire  is  still.  These  con- 
siderations so  crowd  upon  us,  that  aught  like  an  adequate  enforce- 
ment of  them  would  require  a  great  deal  more  of  time  and  strength 
than  we  can  afford  to  bestow.  Perhaps  some  of  them  will  be 
touched  upon  in  our  purposed  Appendix,  the  various  articles  of 
which  we  earnestly  recommend  to  the  attention  of  our  readers,  and 
especially  such  of  them  as  are  to  be  members  of  the  next  General 
Assembly.! 

*  John  xvii.  21.  *  See  Appendix,  No.  9. 


49 


APPENDIX. 


No.  I. 

On  the  importance  of  the  Free  Church  Ministers  giving  their  Testimony 

and  their  Countenance  in  behalf  of  the  Association.     Sec.  I.  §  2. 

It  were  well  if  some  other  name  could  be  devised  for  our  Fund  than  the  Sustenta- 
tion  Fund,  and  some  other  name  for  our  Committee  than  the  Sustentalion  Com- 
roiitee.  What  we  want  is  ihe  adoption  of  some  such  name  as  will  express,  not  the 
sustentation  of  ministers,  but  Ihe  support  and  witiial  the  extension  of  a  Gospel 
ministry  in  Scotland;  a  name,  in  short,  that  will  stand  related  to  the  work  of  the 
rainisiry  raliier  than  to  its  wages;  a  name  that  would  light  up  m  people's  minds 
the  idea  of  that  public,  patriotu;,  and  truly  Christian  object  for  which  our  Associa- 
tions Jiave  been  instituted,  rather  than  it  should  awaken  on  the  instant,  as  it  does 
now,  a  personal,  and  as  many  feel  it,  a  degrading  association  with  an  income  to 
our  ecclesiastical  labourers  for  the  subsistence  of  themselves  and  their  families.  It 
is  thought  that  some  such  change  would  relieve  our  clergymen  from  that  embarrass- 
ing delicacy  by  which  a  number  of  them  feel  as  if  spell-bound,  and  tied  up  from  any 
attempt  at  the  furtherance  of  a  most  righteous  and  religious  cause. 

I  am  too  well  aware  of  the  virtue  which  lies  in  a  name — the  power  of  imposition 
that  may  reside  in  a  single  word — not  to  feel  the  importance  of  this  suggestion. 
Yet  it  is  extremely  difficult  to  act  upon ;  or  to  select  a  title  for  our  Fund  and  our 
committee  sufficiently  brief,  and  at  the  same  time  sufficiently  expressive  for  the 
purpose  of  a  designation.  Our  original  appellation  was,  "The  Financial  Com- 
mittee ;"  but  this  suggested  the  notion  of"  a  fund  for  all  the  expenses  of  the  Church 
— another  instance,  by  the  way,  of  the  misleading  power  of  a  name.  Certain  it  is 
that  we  were  exposed  for  a  whole  year  to  draughts  and  demands  from  committees 
over  whose  expenditure  we  had  no  manner  ot  control;  and  to  make  our  escape 
from  these,  we  had  to  find  out  some  more  special  and  discriminative  epithet  which 
might  announce  more  precisely  the  real  object  of  our  Associations,  as  well  as  pro- 
tect from  all  encroachment  boih  the  functions  and  the  means  of  their  presiding 
Committee. 

There  is  an  analogy  for  such  a  change  of  name  in  the  Church  Extension  Com- 
mittee of  the  Old  Assembly.  It  was  originally  the  Church  Accommodation  Com- 
mittee; and  hence  (a  third  example  of  ihe  mighty  influence  that  lies  in  mere 
nomenclature)  the  inveterate  notion  that  all  we  meant  by  that  movement  was  a 
mere  multiplication  of  fabrics;  or,  in  the  derisive  language  of  our  enemies,  that 
ours  was  but  a  stone  and  lime  reformation.  I  wished  to  find  a  title  which  might 
be  expressive  of  an  addition  to  the  living  agency  as  well  as  to  the  architecture  or 
our  Church.  I  could  think  of  nothing  better  than  Church  Extension;  and  though 
1  was  not  satisfied  with  the  term  as  being  altogether  adequate,  yet  it  has  been 
generally  given  in  to,  and  the  cause  is  now  recognized  by  no  other  title  either  in 
•Scotland  or  England. 

Some  may  think  the  topic  too  insignificant  to  have  been  so  much  expatiated  on. 
We  sh'iuld  have  thought  so  too,  were  it  not  tor  our  extreme  desire  to  enlist  so 
influential  a  body  as  the  clergy  of  our  Free  Church  in  the  vigorous,  unembarrassed, 
unblusliing  advocacy  of  the  Associations;  the  prosperity  of  which  is  bound  up 
with  the  furtherance  of  a  cause,  as  pure  and  noble  as  the  loftiest  and  most  disinter- 
ested philanthropy  ever  was  engaged  with. 

It  will,  indeed,  be  quite  grievous,  if  they  are  restrained  by  any  con>ideration 
whatever  fioui  doing  their  uttermost  for  the  proraotioa  of  a  cause  so  obviously 


50  APPENDIX. 

patriotic  and  Christian.  We  do  not  ask  them  to  solicit  contributions  in  their  own 
person  ;  but  we  ask  them  to  put  Ibrth  their  legitimate  influence  on  the  deacons  and 
collectors.  It  were  surely  no  great  sacrifice  to  hold  a  monthly  meeting  with  these, 
to  be  present  at  their  reports  ol' progress,  to  urge  upon  them  tiie  mighty  importance 
of  llieir  office,  to  suggest  such  directions  and  details  as  might  aid  them  in  the  dis- 
charge of  its  duties,  to  spirit  them  on  by  the  example  of  ot.ier  places,  to  state  the 
positive  religious  obligation  which  lies  upon  them  of  being  as  little  burdensome 
as  possible,  to  represent  the'  superior  blessedness  of  being  givers  rather  than 
receivers;  and,  if  plain  language  be  necessary,  to  tell  how  odious,  how  disgustingly 
odious,  for  tliem  to  be  an  incubus  on  the  Church,  at  the  expense  of  other  congre- 
gations more  generous  than  they,  and  so  as  to  lay  an  arrest  upon  its  extension, 
and  keep  out  the  light  of  the  gospel  from  localities  far  more  destitute  than  their 
own.  On  tills  subject  see  a  very  admirable  address  to  the  Presbytery  of  Linlithgow 
by  James  M.  Hog,  Esq.  of  Newliston.  If  such  remonstrances  as  his  do  not  tell  in 
arousing  our  Free  Church  ministers  to  a  sense  of  their  responsibilities  and  duties, 
I  give  up  in  despair  what,  would  they  but  co-operate  as  they  ought,  might  be  a 
most  easy  and  practicable  attainment,  such  an  augmentation  of  our  means  as  would 
enable  us  to  meet  both  the  ecclesiastical  and  educational  wants  of  all  our  people. 
Whenever  the  minister  is  in  good  earnest,  and  gives  himself  zealously  and  heartily 
to  the  object,  there  never  fails  to  be  a  prosperous  association.  In  other  words, 
should  the  Free  Church  fall  short  of  this  lofty  aim,  the  failure  will  lie  at  the  door 
of  her  own  clergymen. 

No.  II. 

On  the  Possibility  of  Supporting  a  Chvrch,  even  of  National  Magniiude 
and  Extent^  by  the  Contributions  of  the  Middle  and  Lower  Classes. 
Sec.  I.  §  5. 

To  demonstrate  this  possibility,  or  rather  to  turn  this  possible  into  actual,  it  is 
not  necessary  that  each  locality  should  do  all  for  itself;  but  we  utterly  despair  of 
a  universal  result,  if  each  locality,  even  the  poorest,  is  not  made  to  do  something; 
after  which  a  something  more  might  be  done  for  it,  proportional  to  what  it  has 
done  for  itself.  We  need  never  calculate  on  the  endurance  of  a  congregation  that 
looks  for  all  its  supplies  from  without;  and  unless  there  be  a  fountain  of  more  or 
less  yield  from  within,  it  will  either  be  stifled  in  embryo,  or  infallibly  go  down  in 
a  single  generation.  It  is  a  sustained  eflbrt  by  the  people  themselves,  first  to  set 
up  an  Association,  and  then  to  keep  it  going,  which  forms  our  best  guaranty  for 
what  may  well  be  called  fixity  of  tenure,  whether  to  the  mission  or  the  ministry 
that  has  been  planted  in  the  midst  of  them.  And  here  I  cannot  but  record  the 
unmixed  complacency  and  satisfaction  I  have  felt  in  all  my  correspondence  with 
the  good  people  of  Ellsrighill — an  upland,  yet  pleasing  and  picturesque  hamlet  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Biggar— where  there  is  a  devoted  body  of  adherents,  with 
at  most'two  or  three  husbandmen,  but  made  up  chiefly  of  labourers  and  the  ser- 
vants of  husbandmen.  Their  usual  Sabbath  attendance  is  ItiO;  and  the  number 
of  their  home  communicants  at  a  late  sacrament,  exclusive  of  those  from  a  dis- 
tance, was  85.  Their  annual  contribution  to  our  Central  Fund  is  ^^41;  and  by 
which,  in  a  humble  way,  they  managed  to  support  the  catechisl  who  laboured 
amongst  them.  On  being  apprized  by  us  that  if,  by  a  slight  effort,  they  could  raise 
about  £20  more,  by  the  operation  of  our  rule,  they  would  secure  £11)0  a-year  for 
their  future  minister— the  last  and  truly  most  gratifying  communication  which  I 
received  from  them  was  an  expression  of  their  entire  satisfaction  with  this  arrange- 
ment. O,  for  but  two  or  three  pious  and  intelligent  travellers  in  our  employ,  under 
whose  influence  and  care  not  one  of  our  infant  assemblages  need  be  suflered  to  go 
down;  who,  instead  of  this,  could  foster  hundreds  more  of  them  into  being  and 
stability,  and  so  multiply  these  beauteous  spectacles  of  piety  and  Christian  worth 
all  over  the  land  ! 

Never  was  a  church  in  a  better  or  likelier  position  for  filling  up  all  the  waste 
and  vacant  places  in  our  land,  than  is  at  this  moment  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland. 
In  the  first  place,  it  could  make  sure  of  a  little  nucleus  of  adherents  every  where. 
In  the  second  place,  it  might  form  them  into  an  embryo  congregnlion;  which,  could 
it  only  manage  to  keep  up  through  the  succebsive  stages  of  Us  advancement,  might 


APPENDIX. 


51 


in  so  many  months,  or  say  in  two  or  three  years,  be  in  a  fit  state  for  the  services 
of  a  full  and  regular  ministry.  In  the  originating:,  as  well  as  ihe  conducting  of 
i-uch  a  process,  the  utmost  encouragement  should  be  given  to  the  efforts  of  lay 
piety.  Without  a  co-operation  Imm  this  quarter,  we  cannot  possibly,  in  the  pre- 
sent defect  of  our  ecclesiastical  labourers,  meet  the  demands  for  help  which  come 
in  upon  us  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  Anterior,  therefore,  to  the  services  of  a 
probationer,  or  even  of  a  paid  catechist,  the  Sabbath  exercises  might,  in  many  in- 
stances, require  to  be  shared  as  in  our  ordinary  fellowship  meetings,  by  the  pious 
and  the  good  among  themselves.  Who  knows  but  that  in  the  course  of  these 
earlier  operations,  an  able  and  approved  catpchist  may  at  length  spring  up  among 
them,  and  so  raise  them  to  a  higher  platform  in  the  rank  of  their  now  progressive 
congregations'!  We  know  of  one  such,  now  large  and  flourishing,  with  its  hand- 
some church,  and  highly  acceptable  minister,  which  began  not  three  years  ago 
with  but  four  or  six  individuals. 

But  we  have  to  speak  not  only  of  the  demands  from  the  country  for  help  in  men, 
but  of  their  demands  for  help  in  money.  It  cannot  be  too  earnestly  insisted  on, 
that  nothing  eff-'Ctual  and  permanent  should  be  looked  for  in  this  way,  if  they  will 
do  little  or  nothing  to  help  themselves.  And,  therefore,  one  of  the  earliest  steps 
in  devising  for  the  continuance  and  growth  of  a  new  congregation,  still  in  the 
smallness  and  feebleness  of  its  infancy,  is  to  form  an  Association  out  of  its  mem- 
bers, and  give  them  well  to  understand,  that,  instead  of  counting  on  peculiar  sup- 
plies from  abroad,  they  should  feel  their  main  dependence  to  be  on  their  own  efforts 
and  their  own  sacrifices.  How  these  should  be  stimulated  and  carried  onward, 
till,  chiefly  by  dint  of  their  own  liberalities  and  exertions,  their  ecclesiastical 
economy  was  completed,  will  be  detailed  in  a  subsequent  Note.     See  No.  8. 

The  truth  is,  that  analogous  specimens  to  that  of  Ellsrighill  might  be  reared 
every  where.  And  this  perhaps  is  the  place  for  inserting  Mr.  Thompson's  schedule, 
as  a  most  effective  instrument,  either  for  raising  new  Associations,  or  for  resusci- 
tating such  as  are  extinct,  or  finally,  for  reinvigorating  old  ones. 

RATES  OF  CONTRIECTIONS  TO  THE  SUSTENTATION  FUND. 


SCALE. 

PER  WEEK. 

PER 

MONTH. 

PER  QUARTER. 

S. 

d. 

£ 

s. 

d. 

£ 

s.   d. 

Rate,  No.    1 

* 

Rate,  No.   2 .    . . 

0 

1 

0 

0 

4 

0 

1     0 

Rate,  No.    3 

0 

n 

0 

0 

6 

0 

1     6 

Rate,  No.    4   ... 

0 

2 

0 

0 

8 

0 

2     0 

Rate,  No.    5 

0 

3 

0 

1 

0 

0 

3    0 

Rate,  No.    6 . . . . 

0 

6 

0 

2 

0 

0 

6     0 

Rate,  No.    7 

1 

0 

0 

4 

0 

0 

12    0 

Rate,  No.    8 

2 

0 

0 

8 

0 

1 

4     0 

Rate,  No.    9 

2 

6 

0 

10 

0 

1 

10     0 

Rate,  No.  10.... 

3 

6 

0 

14 

0 

2 

2     0 

Rate,  No.  11 

5 

0 

1 

0 

0 

3 

0     0 

Rate,  No.  12 

* 

On  considering  the  above  rates,  I  agree  to  give  to  the  General  Sustentation  Fund  the 
sum  specified  in  Rate  No.  — ,  for  the  year  commencing  at  Martinmas,  1844,  and  request 

the  Deacon  or  Collector  to  call  for  it  each 

(Signature) 

*  Rate  No.  1  is  left  blank,  to  suit  parties  who  may  find  tliat  even  the  Rate,  in  No.  2  is 
beyond  their  ability;  and  Rate  No.  12  is  also  left  blank,  to  suit  parties  whose  circum- 
stances may  enable  them  to  give  a  higher  Rate  than  any  put  down  in  the  scale.  Some 
members  of  the  Free  Church  give  ±'1  a  week,  some  X2,  some  £i  a-week,  and  a  few 
even  more,  to  tlie  Sustentation  Fund. 


On  the  other  hand,  how  grievous,  how  discouraging,  to  be  told,  that  a  process 
so  hopeful,  and  which  might  be  carried  into  effect  any  where,  is  utterly  impracti- 
cable in  this  one,  and  that  other,  part  of  the  country,  from  the  extreme  and  uni- 
versal poverty  which  abounds  in  it.  The  thing  is  experimentally  untrue.  And 
BO  contident  am  I  of  this,  that  1  will  not  let  go  my  expectation  of  a  tenfold  greater 


52  APPENDIX. 

produce  from  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  than  we  have  ever  yet  received  from 
them,  a  confidence  fully  warranted  by  the  following-  encouraging  examples  of  what 
has  been  done,  and  is  doing,  in  various  localities  ot  that  region: 

Abie  of  Amount  of  Contributions  to  the  Sustentation  Fund  from  the  following  Highland 
Furishes,from  ist  April  18'15,  to  26lh  March  1846,  (nearly  a  year.) 

Kingussie, Presbytery  of  Abernethy, X9 1    0  1 

Glenurquliart. „  Abertarff, 110    9  3 

Knockbain, „  Chanonry, 102    3  7 

Kedcaslle, „  „  84    9  3 

Kiiniorack, „  Dingwall, £116    5  9 

Fcrinlosh, „  „         107   0  6 

Urray „  „  102    3  6 

Callander, „  Dunblane 127    0  0 

Loeligilphead, „  Dunoon  and  Inverary,  ... .    116161 

Kirkhill, „  Inverness, 152    19 

Kiltarlity, ,  96  12  0 

Snizort, „  Skye, 75  16  3 

Rosskeen, „  Tain, 95    8  1 

Loclibroom, „  Lochcarron, 90    0  0 

I  doubt  not  that  others,  if  I  knew  their  neighbourhoods  as  well,  would  call  forth 
the  same  expressions  of  my  admiration  and  gratitude.  I  feel  confident  thai  if  Mr. 
Macrae  of  Knockbain,  would  go  forth  on  a  mission  through  the  Associ'itions  of 
the  north,  he  would  awaken  a  noble  spirit  of  Christian  emulation  and  liberality 
over  the  Highlands  of  Scotland.  "  Let  us  provoke  each  other  to  love  and  to  good 
works." 

Truly  the  Free  Church  has  had  sore  difficulties  to  contend  against,  both  right 
and  left.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is  cut  altogether  off  from  the  liberalities  of  the 
great  bulk  and  body  of  the  upper  classes;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  as  if  to  com- 
plete our  hciplessne??,  and  make  sure  our  speedy  and  entire  overthrow,  are  there 
many  injudicious  sentimentalists  among  our  friends,  who  would  lay  their  interdict 
on  every  attempt  to  obtain  a  revenue  from  the  offerings  of  the  great  bulk  and  body 
of  the  common  people.  And  yet  they  will  look  for  dividends  all  the  while.  Verily 
to  be  placed  under  such  taskmasters  is  worse  than  an  Egyptian  bondage.  To 
make  dividends  without  contributions,  I  should  hold  to  be  a  work  of  greater  diffi- 
culty than  to  make  bricks  without  straw. 

On  the  subject  of  a  perpetuity  for  our  system,  I  have  omitted  what  I  hold  to  be 
a  useful  hint  tor  making  sure  of  it.  There  is  a  labourer  in  my  own  Association  who 
gives  3d.  a-week;  but,  with  great  judgment  and  good  feeling,  he  gives  it  in  three 
names,  his  own,  and  those  of  two  of  his  children.  By  thus  dividing  the  family 
contribution,  even  thouirh  to  include  all  the  children,  you  behoved  to  associate 
with  each  of^  their  names  a  half-penny  a  week,  or  say  a  penny,  nay,  even  a  half- 
penny a  month,  the  good  habit,  along  with  its  wholesome  principle,  might  be 
made  to  descend  from  generation  to  generation. 

No.  III. 
On  the  Offerings  of  the  Common  People.     Sec.  I.  §  6. 

For  my  views  upon  this  subject  I  would  refer  to  a  tract  published  by  me  more 
than  thirty  years  ago,  in  order  to  repel  the  objection,  thai  by  taking  contributions 
for  a  religious  object  from  people  in  humblf  lite,  we  hastened  their  de.scent  to  a 
etaie  of  pauperism.  The  tollowing  extract  forms  one  part  of  my  reply  to  the 
adversaries  of  all  such  institutions: 

"The  single  circumstance  of  its  being  a  voluntary  act,  forms  the  defence  and 
the  answer  lo  all  the  clamours  of  an  atlected  sympathy.  You  tiike  from  the  poor! 
No!  thev  give.  You  lui<e  beyond  their  ability  !  Ot  this  they  are  the  best  jiidg(!S. 
You  abridge  their  comforts  !  No!  there  is  a  comfort  in  the  exercise  of  cliarity  : 
there  is  a  comlbrt  in  the  act  of  lending  a  hand  to  a  noble  enterprise;  tlnre  is  a 
comfort  in  the  conlemplution  of  its  progress;  there  is  a  comfort  in  rendering  a 
service  to  a  friend,  and  when  tl.at  friend  is  the  Saviour,  and  that  service  the  cir- 
culation of  ihe  message  He  left  behind  Him,  it  is  a  comlorl  which  many  of  the 


J 


APPENDIX. 


53 


poor  are  ambitious  to  share  in.  Leave  them  to  judge  of  their  comfort ;  and  if,  in 
point  of  fact,  they  do  give  their  penny  a-week  to  a  Parochial  Society,  it  just 
speaks  them  to  have  more  comfort  in  this  way  of  spending  it,  than  in  any  other 
which  occurs  to  them. 

"  Perhaps  it  does  not  occur  to  those  friends  of  the  poor,  while  they  are  sitting 
in  judgment  on  their  circumstances  and  feelings,  how  unjustly  and  how  unworthily 
they  think  of  them.  They  do  not  conceive  how  truth  and  benevolence  can  be  at 
all  objects  to  them  ;  and  suppose,  that  after  they  have  got  the  meat  to  feed,  the 
Jiouse  to  shelter,  the  raiment  to  cover  them,  there  is  nothing  else  that  they  will  bestow 
a  penny  upon.  They  may  not  be  able  to  express  their  feelings  on  a  suspicion  so 
ungenerous,  but  I  shall  do  it  for  them:  'We  have  souls  as  well  as  you,  and  pre- 
cious to  our  hearts  is  the  Saviour  who  died  for  them.  It  is  true,  we  have  our  dis- 
tresses; but  these  have  bound  us  more  firmly  to  our  Bibles,  and  it  is  the  desire  of 
our  hearts,  that  a  gift  so  precious  should  be  sent  to  the  poor  of  other  countries. 
The  word  of  God  is  our  hope  and  our  rejoicing;  we  desire  that  it  may  be  theirs 
also — that  the  wandering  savage  may  know  it  and  be  glad,  and  the  poor  negro, 
under  the  lash  of  his  master,  may  be  told  of  a  Master  in  heaven,  who  is  full  of 
pity  and  full  of  kindness.  Do  you  think  that  sympathy  for  such  as  these  is  your 
peculiar  attribute!  Know  that  our  hearts  are  made  of  the  same  materials  wiih 
your  own;  that  we  can  feel  as  well  as  you;  and  out  of  the  earnings  of  a  hard  and 
honest  industry,  we  shall  give  an  offering  to  the  cause;  nor  shall  we  cease  our  ex- 
ertions till  the  message  of  salvation  be  carried  round  the  globe,  and  made  known 
to  the  countless  millions  who  live  in  guilt,  and  who  die  in  darkness.' " — Chalmers' 
Works,  Vol.  xii.,  pp.  143-145. 


No.  IV. 

The  Stability  uf  our  Means  lies  more  in  the  Smaller  Contributions  of  the 
many.)  than  in  the  Larger  Contributions  of  the  few.     Sect.  I.  §  8. 

When  I  was  called,  in  the  spring  of  last  year,  to  address  the  friends  of  our  Free 
Church  in  Glasgow  on  the  subject  of  their  Associations,  I  believe  some  were  dis- 
appointed because  I  did  nut  address  myself  so  much  to  the  richer  as  to  the  general 
classes  of  society.  1  spoke  under  a  deep  conviction  both  of  the  moral  and  pecu- 
niary importance  of  plebeian  contributions;  and  with  an  anxious  desire  that  this 
should  be  felt  and  acted  on  throughout  the  country  at  large.  Perhaps  the  follow- 
ing official  statemenc  will  convince  the  reader  of  what  mighty  consequence  it  were 
that  an  elevating  force  were  brought  to  bear  on  the  greatly  too  numerous  class  of 
unproductive  Associations. 

Abstract,  showing  the  Rate  of  Contrihittions,  according  to  the  Actual  Remiltavces  to  the 
Treasurer  in  Edinburgh,  from  all  (he  Associations  of  the.  Free  Church  of  Scotland,  for 
the  six  months  immediatelij  following  the  General  Assembly  of  1844: 


Rates. 


No.  ofj  Average  Sum     Amount  Irom  ail 
Associ-       from  each        the  Association 
ations.i     per  Annum.    |     per  Annum. 


1.  At  or  above  £500  per  annum .... 

2.  From  £300  to  £500 

3.  "      £200  to  £300 

4.  "      £100  to  £200 

5.  "        £75  to  £100 

6.  »       £50  to    £75 

7.  "        £20  to    £.'J0 

8.  Under  £20 

9.  Associations  which  madeno  remit- 

tances during  the  six  months,  but 
have  since  remitted  sums  which 
may  fairly  be  taken  as  their  half- 
yearly  sum, 

10.  Associations  entirely  blank, 

1  ] .  Stations  returning  very  small  sUms, 


17 

13 

30 

114 

95 

145 

240 

37 


13 

4 
48 


Total  number  of  Associations,.  .      756 


£980  13  fi 

354  15  0 

238  16  4 

131   10  0 

86     8  4 

62     5  4 

34     1  4 


14     2  10 


£16,671  9  6 

4,611  15  0 

7,164  11  9 

14,991  0  0 

8,209  18  8 

9,029  2  3 

8,176  0  0 

523  4  10 


645     7     4 

0    0    0 

198    8    9 


l£70,220  18     1 


£4 


APPENDIX. 


Abstract,  showinor  the  Rate  of  Contributions,  according  to  the  Actual  Remitiancrs  to  the 
Treasurer  in  Edinburgh,  from  all  the  Associations  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland, 
from  15th  May  to  I5th  November,  1845: 


Rates. 

No. 

Average 
per  Annum. 

Amount 
per  Annum. 

1.  Above  i?500  per  annum, 

2.  From  i;200  to  i:500 

3.  "      XlOOtojESGO 

4.  "        £50  toXlOO 

15 

52 

146 

275 

287 

775 
31 

£910  14     6 

288     7     7^ 

129  16  10 

73     2     4 

28     9     2 

jC14,695  18     1 

14,9!l5  16     6 

18,957     4     0 

20,107     7     3 

8,169     3    2 

6.  Remitted  nothing  during  the  above 

.£76,925    9     0 

The  comparison  of  this  abstract  with  a  similar  one  for  last  year,  enables  us  to 
state  the  following  differences  betwi.xt  them  : 

1.  There  are  two  fewer  Associations  this  year  than  last,  which  yielded  more 
than  £.500  a-year  each,  and  the  whole  sum  contributed  by  these  is  £i975,  lis.  5d. 
less.  This  process  of  diminution  will  infallibly  go  on,  if  the  aid-receiving  Asso- 
ciations do  not  bestir  themselves. 

2.  There  are  nine  more  which  yield  from  £200  to  £.500  more  than  last  year; 
and  their  united  contributions  exceed  those  of  last  year  by  £3,219  19s.  9d.  This 
forms  a  very  wholesome  class  of  Associations;  and  to  tlie  multiplication  of  these 
do  we  look  for  the  extension  of  our  Church. 

3.  Of  those  which  yield  from  £100  to  £200,  there  are  so  many  which  rise  above 
the  self-supporting  point,  and  so  many  which  fall  beneath  it.  We  would  earnest- 
ly urge  upon  them  an  aspiring  effort  toward  the  2d  class.  They  give  £3,966,  43. 
more  than  last  year. 

4.  There  are  thirty-five  Associations  more  than  last  year  of  those  which  give 
from  £50  to  £100;  and  united  they  give  £2,868,  Gs.  4d.  more  than  last  year.  But 
Ihev  are  all  beneatii  the  sell-supporting  level;  and  we  do,  for  the  sake  of  the 
Chiistianiiy  of  our  land,  implore  tliem  to  rise  above  the  condition  of  receivers. 

5.  Of  those  who  give  under  £50  there  are  twenty-four  less  than  last  year:  but 
they  give  us  amongst  them  much  less  in  proportion — tliat  is,  £1,373,  5s.  7d.  less 
than  last  year.  These  form  the  heaviest  part  of  our  concern,  and  they  will  at  last 
sink  the  ship  if  not  put  under  proper  reuulation.  It  is  for  preventing  the  multi- 
plication of  these  that  our  nursery  operations  are  so  indispensable.  The  otfice- 
bearers  connected  witii  such  Associations,  and  who  mak  eno  effort  to  amend  tiiem — 
these  are  they  to  whom  1  referred  in  the  Preface  as  being  most  grievously  in  the 
wrong. 

Let  me  not  be  understood,  however,  as  if  I  regarded  with  indifference  the 
larcrer  contributions  of  the  wealthy.  All  is  wanted;  and  let  me  hope  tiiat  not  only 
will  individuals  of  signal  munificence  arise  in  greater  numbers  to  befriend  us,  but 
that  the  aid  giving  Associations  will  increase  and  multiply  more  and  mure. 


No.  V. 

On  certain  requisite  Modiji  cat  ions  by  vrJiich  our  present  Sr/ste7n  of  an 
Equal  Dividend  mis^ht  be  Improved.  Sect.  III.  and  IV.,  ^  2. 
The  only  semblance  of  an  argument  for  an  equal  dividend  is,  that  it  carries  an 
aspect  of  justice  («^'7»i^«s)  to  the  ministers  wlio  came  out  at  the  Disruption. 
There  is  but  the  aspect  in  it,  however,  and  not  the  reality  of  justice.  Had  the 
plan  been  adopted  of  each  Association  gftiing  back  one  half  more  than  it  gave,  up 
to  £150,  it  would  have  insured  this  dividend  to  at  least  the  great  majority  of  the 
out^rone  ministers,  whereas,  wiih  no  less  tlian  318  Associations  giving  us  less  than 
£00,  and  some  of  them  less  than  £20  a-ycar,  the  result  is  unavoidable  of  a  much 
lower  dividend  throughout  the  whole  Cliurch;  so  that  all,  iii  fact,  are  weighed 
down  to  a  lower  level,  tor  the  sake  of  a  few  who,  at  the  same  time,  would,  if  Ibund 
in  tlieir  ascertained  circumstances  not  to  have  been  glaringly  deficient,  would, 


APPENDIX.  55 

through  the  medium  of  the  Home  Mission  Committee,  or  otherwise,  have  been 
raised  to  £100;  an  allowance  which,  on  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend,  all  must 
make  up  iheir  minds  to,  thougii  no  practical  good,  but,  on  tlie  other  hand,  a  great 
and  depressing  influence  is  brought  to  bear  by  it  on  the  revenues  of  the  Church. 

But  if  the  evil  cannot  at  once  "be  done  away,  we  should  at  least  attempt  to  miti- 
gate and  to  make  it  temporary.  Some  are  proposing  that  the  ministers  admitted 
from  the  Assembly  1843  to  1844  should  come  under  the  new  regulation.  But  the 
regulation  of  1844  was  adopted  prospectively ;  and  I  for  one  have  no  wish  that 
aught  which  can  be  complained  of  as  having  in  it  the  injustice  of  a  retrospective 
operation,  should  be  proposed  in  the  Assemblies  of  our  Free  Church. 

But  there  is  a  very  obvious  contravention  of  sound  principle  which  ought  to  be 
instantly  provided  against.  The  equal  dividend  should  be  continued  only  with  the 
ministers  who  came  out,  and  not  be  perpetuated  in  the  charges  which  are  letl 
vacant,  whether  by  their  death  or  by  their  removal.  There  have  been  several  such 
vacancies;  and  we  have  committed  tlie  flagrant  error  of  keeping  up  the  equal  di- 
vidend to  the  newly  appointed  ministers  who  have  succeeded  in  their  places.  At 
this  rate,  the  anomaly  of  470  congregations  on  a  different  footing  from  all  the  rest 
would  be  perpetuated  to  the  latest  ages.  Whereas  the  anomaly  should  be  suffered 
to  die  away  with  the  disappearance  of  the  original  ministers,  and  at  length  all 
would  be  placed  under  the  common  rule  of  getting  as  they  give — a  rule  that  should 
stimulate  to  its  uttermost  every  Association  in  the  Church;  and,  under  the  opera- 
tion of  which  we  could  accomplish  two  objects,  otherwise  hopeless ;  first,  the  raising 
generally  of  the  allowance  from  the  Central  Fund  to  £1-50,  and  we  think  at  length 
to  i2200;  and,  secondly,  the  indefinite  expansion  of  the  Church,  so  as  to  meet  all 
the  necessities  of  all  our  population. 

There  is  another  modification  which,  we  think,  might  be  adopted  with  a  most 
beneficial  influence.  Let  those  ministers  of  the  Disruption  who  choose  to  be 
placed  on  the  footing  of  one  and  a  half  more  till  they  receive  £150,  signify  this 
wish ;  and  let  it  forthwith  take  effect.  Many,  we  are  sure,  who  are  now  kept  down 
to  the  present  low  dividend  would  rise,  per  saltum,  to  £150.  We  are  confident  of 
many  Associations  which  now  give  much  less  than  £100,  and  even  less  than  £.50 
annually,  that  they  would  instantly  put  forth  new  vigour ;  and  rising  each  to  £100, 
and  some  of  them  I  hope  generously  beyond  it,  would  ensure  £150  from  the  Central 
Fund  for  their  minister.  The  regulation  of  one  and  a  half  more  would  act  as  if 
by  barometrical  pressure  in  raising  the  contributions;  whereas,  from  the  want  of 
this  elevating  power,  the  Church  loses  every  year  many  thousand  pounds  which  it 
might  otherwise  realize. 

I  had  a  visit  some  time  ago  from  a  zealous  friend  of  the  Free  Church,  which  I 
confess  greatly  discomposed  me.  The  object  of  it  was  to  point  out  and  complain 
of  an  anomaly  in  which  the  system  of  getting  as  they  give  was  likely  to  land  us. 
Some  of  the  new  ministers,  under  the  new  regulation,  will,  in  virtue  of  the  hand- 
some contribution  from  their  people,  be  entitled  to  £150,  and  so  shoot  a-head  of  all 
who  are  limited  to  the  dividend.  Would  that  this  anomaly  were  realized  by  all  of 
these  ministers,  or  at  least  by  as  many  as  would  demonstrate  the  stimulating  and 
elevating  power  of  the  rule  under  which  they  are  placed.  But  the  mortifying  cir- 
cumstance is,  that  what  formed  the  most  impressive  argument  for  our  adoption  of 
this  system  should  thus  have  been  turned  into  an  argument  against  it.  I  perfectly 
despair  of  a  right  and  comprehensive  policy  being  adopted,  if  in  our  popular  Assem- 
bly, where  not  twelve  perhaps  have  listened  to  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  and 
made  a  thorough  study  of  it,  the  most  laboriously  devised  scheme,  however  sound 
and  however  much  it  may  commend  itself  to  the  judgment  of  practical  men,  shall 
be  in  dangerof  being  overset  on  the  rash  and  hasty  suggestion,  whether  of  one  who 
can  sport  what  may  seem  a  plausibility,  but  only  to  those  who  take  in  but  a  part  or 
fragment  of  the  whole ;  or  of  one  who  carries  weight  because  of  his  real  excellence 
in  some  departments  of  the  Church's  business,  and  who  therefore  is  held  worthy  to 
be  a  universalist  in  the  direction  of  all  her  affairs.  If  it  seem  hard  that  they  who, 
by  giving  us  £100,  have  earned  their  right  to  £50  more,  should  receive  so  much 
from  us,  is  it  not  infinitely  harder  that  those  who  make  no  exertion,  and  give  us 
less  than  £50  each,  should  obtain  more  than  £.50  additional,  even  upon  the  low 
dividend  of  £100;  and  should  put  in  even  for  more  than  £100 additional  should  the 
dividend  ever  rise  to  J21.50;  a  point,  however,  that  it  will  never  reach  under  the 
system  of  an  equal  dividend  ;  or  if  it  does,  it  will  be  because  of  the  cruel  arrest 


H 


APPENDIX. 


which  it  has  laid  on  church  extension.  It  were  a  mighty  relief  could  we  obtain 
the  estaliiishment  of  a  system  under  which  the  maximum  of  what  we  had  to  <,'-ive 
over  and  above  the  remittances  of  any  church,  was  not  more  than  £50  to  any  of 
our  aid-receiving  Associations. 

No.  VI. 

On  the  Character  and  Prospects  of  a  Chvrch  indifferent  to  the  Moral 
and  Religious  State  of  the  Outfield  Population.  Sect.  III.  &  IV.,  §  7. 
One  can  imagine,  no  doubt,  a  selfish  church,  headed  by  aspiring  rulers;  the 
former  caring  more  for  the  comfort  of  its  existing  ministers  than  for  the  Christian 
good  of  the  surrounding  population  ;  and  the  latter  satisfied  with  the  command  of 
a  body,  that  held  withm  its  limits  the  political  influence  of  five  or  six  iiundred 
congregations,  although  limited  to  this  number,  it  should  never  be  extended  fur- 
ther. One  can  imagine  a  collusion  between  these  parties,  and  a  measure  carried, 
Buch  as  a  universal  and  prospective  equal  dividend,  which  promised,  however  falla- 
ciously, to  secure  a  higher  provision  for  the  ministers  at  large,  while  at  the  same 
time  it  paralyzed  all  our  home  missionary  efforts,  and  laid  a  sure  arrest  on  the 
extension  of  the  Church.  But  <6uch  a  system  never  could  enjoy  the  continued 
support  of  an  intelligent  Christian  public;  and  so  aught  like  a  general  fund  would 
speedily  wane  to  its  extinction,  leaving  nothing  to  divide,  and  so  landing  us  in  no 
dividend. 

One  of  the  most  frequent  marks  of  the  indifference  to  be  charged  upon  too  many 
of  the  churches  in  our  land,  is  the  union  of  two  weak  congregations,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  forming  a  strong  one.  Surely  if  there  be  enough  of  population  to  make  up 
both,  it  were  greatly  better  that  each  should  retain  its  own  distinct  agency,  and  by 
means  of  laborious  and  devoted  missionary  work,  that  they  should  recruit  their  res- 
pective churches  from  the  outfield  families  around  them.  There  is  a  congrega- 
tional interest  that  comes  into  direct  conflict  with  the  Christian  good  of  the 
community  at  large. 

No.  VII. 
On  Scales  of  Distribution.     Sect.  Ilf.  &  IV.,  §  15. 
These  can  be  variously  constructed.     The  rate  of  one  and  a  half  more  would 
give  rise  to  a  scale,  No.  i.  of  the  three  here  subjoined.    The  other  two  have  been 
actually  proposed. 

(1.)  (2.)  (3.) 


Conlribution. 

Stipend. 

Contribution. 

Stipend. 

Contribution. 

Stipend. 

£50 

£15 

JE60 

£\20 

.£50 

JC120 

GO 

90 

70 

1.30 

60 

120 

70 

105 

80 

140 

70 

136 

80 

120 

90 

150 

80 

144 

90 

13.5 

110 

165 

90 

152 

100 

150 

130 

180 

100 

158 

155 

190 

110 

164 

The-  increase  of  the  2d 
column    stops  here.     Tfie 
(iri-t  rises  upwards  through 

180 
200 
220 

200 
205 
210 

120 
130 

140 

170 
176 
180 

the    aid-receiving    to    the 
contributions   of  the    aid- 
giving  congregations. 

Both  colum 
to  inc 

ns  continue 
rease. 

150 
IGO 

180 
200 
220 
Botii  colum 

184 
168 
193 
198 
208 
ns  increase. 

U  will  be  observed  that  by  the  2d  and  3d  scales,  no  congregation  becomes  an 
aid-giver  till  its  conlribution  has  risen  above  £'2U0.  All  at  or  below  £200  are 
aid-receivers.  Let  it  be  observed  that  at  present  we  have  only  07  congregations 
who  give  up  to  or  above  X'20();  and  that  if  there  be  no  increase  in  the  number 
of  them,  over  and  above  providing  the  stipends  of  their  own  ministers,  they  would 
have  to  make  up  the  deficiency  of  towards  six  hundred  aid-receiving  congregations. 


APPENDIX.  57 

We  hold  that  the  main  purpose  of  scales  would  be  served  by  the  simple  regula- 
tion, ihat  no  congregation  should  be  connected  with  the  General  Fund  till  it 
remitted  £50  a-year — after  which  let  us  imagine  a  scale  terminating  where  No.  1 
does;  but  that,  instead  of  its  rate  of  one  and  a  half,  each  should  receive  ^50  more 
than  its  contribution  till  the  stipend  came  to  J£150,  and  there  should  be  no  further 
increase  upon  it.  This  VA'ould  give  rise  to  the  following  scale : — For  £iii)  gel  back 
i^lUO;  for  X'60,  £110;  for  £70,  £120;  for  £80,  ^6130;  for  £90,  £145;  tor  £100, 
£150.  After  the  selfish  principle  had  carried  up  so  many  congregations  to  the 
contribution  of  iJlOO,  it  is  to  he  hoped  that  so  many  more  would  not  stop  there; 
but  that  the  generous  principle  would  liien  begin  to  operate,  and  we  should  have 
contributions  of  £110,  £120,  and  £150 — lessening  their  burden  upon  us  from  £50 
to  £40,  £30,  &,c.,  till  they  became  self-supporting  at  £150.  Then,  and  at  thia 
point  would  there  commence  our  aid-giving  congregations;  and  it  will  give  some 
idea  of  tiie  capabilities  of  our  Church,  if  to  avoid  complexity  we  shall  keep  out  of 
view  the  intermediate  congregations;  and,  suppose  that  all  the  aid-receiving  con- 
gregations cost  £50  each  to  the  General  Fund.  Let  us  then  conceive  our  Church 
to  consist  of  750  congregations,  and  that  one-third  of  them  only,  or  2-50,  are  aid- 
giving,  while  two-thirds,  or  500,are  aid-receiving.  This  would  imply  a  deficiency  on 
the  part  of  the  latter  to  the  extent  of  £25,000  to  be  made  up  by  the  former,  whose 
contributions  would  therefore  require  to  average  £250  each — that  is,  £150  reserved 
each  for  its  own  minister,  and  £100  over  and  above  for  the  deficient  congregations. 
The  sum  total  from  the  250  aid-giving  congregations,  on  the  supposition  that  they 
averaged  £100  each,  would  be  £50,000.  Or,  in  other  words,  from  a  net  revenue 
of  £112,500,  we  could  afford  to  give  £150  a  year  to  each  of  750  ministers.  This 
might  be  realized  next  year,  could  we  only  get  rid  of  the  enormous  deficiencies  of 
those  wlio  now  give  us  less  than  £.50  a-year.  Why,  to  get  up  these  alone  to  this 
£150,  we  should  require  to  expend  more  than  the  whole  £25,000  of  surplus  put 
into  our  hands  by  the  aid-giving  congregations — whereas,  with  this  surplus,  and  on 
the  simple  adoption  of  the  regulation  that  none  should  be  admitted  into  connexion 
with  us  till  they  give  £50 — we  could,  with  the  same  £25,000  of  surplus,  insure 
a  dividend  of  £150  a-year  throughout  nearly  all,  or  with  a  very  few  straggling 
exceptions,  a  whole  Church  of  750  ministers. 

And  let  it  not  be  said  that  by  ridding  ourselves  of  this  incubus,  we  doom  to  ex- 
tinction so  many  of  our  poorer  congregations.  The  truth  is,  that  almost,  if  not 
altogether,  they,  every  one  of  them,  under  the  stimulus  of  getting  as  they  gave, 
would  remit  the  £50.  Or  if  some  few  did  not,  there  is  not  one  of  them,  if  found 
by  the  Home  Mission  Committee  to  be  meritorious  cases,  which  would  not  receive 
what  would  make  up  £100  from  their  funds,  a  sum  as  great  as  they  ever  can 
receive  under  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend,  a  system,  therefore,  which,  though 
continued  for  their  sakes,  would  yield  no  practical  good  to  them,  and  at  the  heavy 
expense  of  keeping  down  the  general  dividend  to  its  present  level ;  or,  if  the  ex- 
tension of  our  Church  is  to  be  prosecuted,  of  sinking  it  still  lower. 

When  I  think  of  the  perfect  ease  wherewith  both  dividends  might  be  increased, 
and  the  Church  rapidly  extended,  I  am  all  the  more  conscious  that  these  various 
schemes  of  distribution  should  be  discussed  with  the  most  perfect  temper  and 
forbearance;  and,  also,  that  enough  of  time  should  be  taken  for  the  maturing  of 
them.  It  were  grievous,  indeed,  if,  when  within  demonstrable  reach  of  so  blessed 
a  consummation,  we  should  fall  short  of  it  by  falling  out  among  ourselves.  Let 
us  not  give  our  enemies  this  triumph. 

There  is  nothing  v^hich  has  more  shaken  our  confidence  in  the  disposition  of 
the  Free  Church  to  become  an  extending  Church,  or  at  least  in  its  perception  of 
the  right  measures  for  carrying  this  into  eflect,  than  a  late  resolution  on  the  part 
of  a  numerous  meeting  of  its  ministers  and  elders,  that  the  equal  dividend  should 
be  kept  up  in  those  charues  v/hose  ministers  came  out  at  the  Disruption,  even 
after  the  outgone  minister  had  been  removed  by  death  or  by  translation,  and  been 
succeeded  by  one  who  liad  made  no  sacrifice.  If  there  be  any  soundness  in  the 
principle  that  congregations  should  be  encouraged  to  make  an  efix)rt  for  them- 
selves by  getting  in  proportion  as  they  give,  then  there  is  so  little  sense  or  rea- 
son in  exempting  from  the  operation  of  this  rule,  and  that  for  ever,  all  those  geo- 
graphical portions  of  the  Free  Church  territory,  whose  ministers  happened  to  come 
out  at  the  Disruption,  that  the  resolution  they  should  be  so  exempted  looks  very 
like  a  blow  ai  the  rule  or  principle  itself.    And  then,  should  the  blow  take  eflect, 


SB  APPENDIX. 

it  will  involve  llie  restoration  of  a  universal  equal  dividend,  both  present  and  pro- 
Bpeclive.  Our  reason  for  deprecating  such  a  measure  as  ruinous  is  not  that  it  will 
hang  with  depressing  effect  in  all  time  coming  upon  the  dividend,  though  this 
must  be  one  of  its  sure  results,  but  tliat  it  will  prove  a  death-blow  to  our  Churcli's 
extension,  and  thus  incapacitate  her  for  taking  a  share  in  the  honourable  work  of 
making  aught  like  a  large  or  successful  inroad  on  that  outfield  population,  who 
occupy  the  wide  and  fearfully  increasing  domain  of  the  country's  practical  hea- 
thenism. It  will  land  us  in  a  most  anomalous  syste(n,  at  variance  with  all  the 
attempts  which  have  been  made  of  late  years  for  adding  to  the  number  of  minis- 
ters, or  churches,  or  schools  in  the  land.  The  regium  donum  proceeds  on  the 
rule  of  getting  as  they  give,  the  sum  awarded  to  the  minister  from  the  Treasury 
bearing  a  proportion  to  the  sum  raised  for  him  by  the  congregation.  The  present 
allowance  from  the  State  for  the  erection  of  schools  is  regula'ted  by  the  amount  of 
private  subscriptions  for  the  same  object.  The  Church  Extension  of  the  old  Gen- 
eral Assembly,  under  which  200  churches  sprung  into  being  in  four  or  five  years, 
advanced  with  such  rapid  strides,  not  by  granting  to  all  equally  from  the  Central 
Fund,  at  which  rate  we  should  not  have  had  a  tenth  part  of  these  additional  churches, 
but  by  a  certain  regulated  centage,  which  left  the  remainder,  or  rather  main  bulk 
ot  the  expense,  to  be  provided  for  by  local  efforts.  Let  not  oui  Church  be  aban- 
doned to  the  recklessness  of  men,  who,  under  the  power  of  one  engrossing  idea, 
or  misled  by  some  specious  plausibility  that  carries  in  it  the  semblance,  and  but  a 
eemblance,  of  the  reasonable  and  the  right,  would  shut  out  the  light  of  all  these 
experiences,  and  rush  headlong  into  a  policy  that  would  soon  bring  us  to  a  dead 
stand.  The  equal  dividend,  carried  out  and  persisted  in,  will  not  only  operate, 
which  it  has  already  done,  to  a  fearful  extent,  as  a  sedative  on  the  efforts  of  the 
aid-receiving,  but  as  a  sedative  too,  and  that  right  soon,  on  the  liberalities  of  the 
aid-giving  congregations.  The  spectacle  of  nearly  one-half  our  Churches  receiv- 
ing  each  £120  from  the  Central  Treasury,  and  contributing  less  than  £50,  and 
this  palpably  due,  not  to  the  necessities  of  the  case,  but  to  the  downright  apathy 
or  indolence  of  Deacons  and  Collectors,  such  a  spectacle  cannot  long  be  perpetu- 
ated, but  will  soon  fall  to  pieces  under  the  weight  and  the  exhaustion  of  its  own 
natural  decay. 

We  have  heard  it  objected  to  the  method  of  getting  as  they  give,  that  instances 
may  occur  of  the  remittance  from  the  association  being  made,  not  of  a  sum  raised, 
but  ot  a  sum  borrowed,  and  this  to  cause  the  larger  proportional  return  from  the 
Central  Fund  in  Edinburgh.  And  it  is  argued,  from  the  possible  or  even  the  actual 
occurrence  of  such  a  flagrant  iniquity,  in  one  or  two  instances,  that  the  system 
though  otherwise  and  in  general  of  most  wholesome  operation,  should  be  there- 
fore done  away.  It  were  well  if  these  reasoners  would  only  bethink  themselves 
ot  wherein  it  is  that  the  necessity  or  the  wisdom  of  legislation  lies,  not  most  cer- 
tainly in  the  sacrifice  of  a  universal  good,  and  this  for  the  prevention  of  such  a 
rare  and  disgraceful  enormity,  that  the  very  exposure  of  it  would  prove  its  own 
severest  punishment,  and  therefore  its  own  most  effectual  check  and  corrective; 
but  for  the  prevention  of  a  sore  and  universal  evil,  and  this  through  the  operation 
ol  a  natural  lethargy,  which  stirs  up  no  vivid  indignation  whatever,  because  there 
are  so  many  who  share  in  it,  and  keep  it  in  countenance.  When  a  congregation, 
who  might  easily  do  three  times  more,  gives  less  than  £50  to  the  General  Fund, 
and  yet  without  remorse  would  take  out  £120  for  the  maintenance  of  their  minis- 
ter, there  is  readiness  enough,  we  admit,  to  call  out  shameful ;  but  the  shame  of 
it  18  not  really  felt,  or  at  least  not  so  felt  as  to  be  of  practical  operation,  as  the 
very  existence  of  318  such  congregations  in  the  Free  Church  most  abundantly 
tes>tilies.  The  law  of  getting  as  they  give  supplies  the  very  stimulus  that  is 
oLviously  awanling;  and  which,  if  not  supplied,  will  perpetuate  such  a  drag  upon 
the  Church  as  shall  both  restrain,  or  rather  wholly  arrest  its  progress,  and  keep 
down  the  general  circumstances  of  the  whole  body. 

We  would  not  have  dwelt  so  long  on  the  subject  of  this  note,  hut  for  our  appre- 
hension of  its  being  the  very  subject  on  which  the  Free  Church  is  likeliest  to  go 
wrong.  And  should  the  apprehension  be  verified,  then  must  we  abandon  our 
loudly  cherished  hope  of  its  ever  attaining  to  the  magnitude  of  a  national  insti- 
tute, or  of  its  ever  reaching  farther  than  by  a  very  little  way  among  our  yet  unpro- 
vided families.   The  loss  of  importance  to  it  is  comparatively  a  bagatelle;  but  it  is 


APPENDIX.  59 

no  basratelle  that  we  should  adopt  a  system  which  limits  and  disables  us  as  a  Home 
Mission,  and  so  confines  that  gospel  within  a  narrower  territory,  the  blessed  calls 
and  overtures  of  which  might,  under  another  economy,  be  brought  to  every  poor 
man's  hovel,  to  every  cottage  door. 

No.  VIIL 

Fear  lest  the  work  of  Church  Extension  should  he  mismanaged  or 

neglected. 

We  confess  that  our  fears  lest  any  suggestions  which  might  be  offered  shaU 
not  be  attended  to,  but  be  overlooked  in  the  headlong  and  hurried  style  of  Assem- 
bly business,  by  which  matters  are  huddled  through,  of  whatever  importance  ;  and 
however  essential,  that  they  should  have  been  well  weighed  and  undergone  a 
thorough  elaboration  in  the  silent  chambers  of  thought,  or  amid  the  leisurely 
deliberations  of  a  small  and  select  committee,  the  members  of  which  were  not 
overborne  by  the  multitude  of  their  tasks,  we  confess  that  our  fears  lest  such  mat- 
ters should  proceed  in  their  wonted  hap-hazard  way,  have  been  greatly  confirmed 
and  aggravated  by  a  very  glaring  inslnnce  of  it  that  occurred  since  tlie  first  im- 
pression of  this  pamphlet  was  thrown  off",  and  copies  of  it  put  into  the  hands  of 
the  most  prominent  and  public  men  in  Edinburgh,  and  who  have  to  do  in  the  man- 
agement of  the  affairs  of  the  Free  Church.  The  very  essence  of  our  proposed 
training  method  for  the  non-ministerial  Associations,  lies  in  the  separate  corres- 
pondence that  we  hold,  and  the  separate  accounts  that  we  keep  with  each  of  these. 
But  so  little  was  this  adverted  to,  even  after  the  method  had  been  proceeded  in  for 
nearly  a  whole  twelvemonth,  that  two  or  more  Committees  which  stood  related  to 
these  Associations  were  on  the  eve  of  a  joint  resolution  that  all  their  contributions 
should  be  merged  is^to  one,  and  disposed  of  for  the  general  behoof.  This  measure 
was  fortunately  averted  by  the  production  of  the  original  circulars  which  had  been 
sent  forth  at  the  outset  of  this  peculiar  arrangement,  when  it  was  discovered  that 
the  produce  of  such  Associations  could  not  be  alienated  from  the  special  to  the  gen- 
eral application,  without  the  violation  of  a  distinct  understanding  with  each  and 
with  all  of  them.  Jt  was  well  that  a  very  grievous  blunder  was  thus  prevented  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand  very  mortifying  to  find  that  the  charm  and  efficacy  of  thia 
separate  mode  of  treatment  were  still  so  little  acknowledged  and  so  little  under- 
stood. 

It  is,  however,  all  the  more  gratifying  now,  that  there  is  a  likelihood  of  these 
nursery  operations  being  better  attended  to.  My  able  and  intelligent  friend  Mr. 
Handyside,  is  all  alive  to  the  importance  of  them.  The  beauty  and  the  efficacy  of 
such  a  process  as  that  exemplified  at  Eljsrighill  could  not  fail  indeed  to  arrest  and 
convince  all  who  have  had  the  opportunity  of  closely  observing  them.  And  it  is 
a  very  great  satisfaction  that  the  correspondence  with  these  nursling  or  embryo 
congregations  should  have  fallen  into  the  hands  and  been  placed  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Mr.  Tweedie.  I  do  hope  tiiat  he  will  be  left  to  prosecute  this  very  high 
and  most  prolific  walk  of  usefulness  without  disturbance  or  embarrassment  of  any 
sort.  And  here,  let  me  be  sufl>^red  to  make  frank  and  honest  utterance  of  the 
mischief  and  mismanagement  which  I  conceive  to  be  attendant  on  the  interference 
of  Committees  with  each  other.  Each  should  have  its  own  well  defined  task  and 
territory,  and  each  should  be  left  to  the  separate  and  uncontrolled  manag(^ent 
of  its  own  affairs — subject  of  course,  and  responsible  at  all  times  to  the  Assembly, 
to  whom  it  briniTs  the  annual  report  of  its  proceedings;  but  free  from  all  jurisdic- 
tion on  the  part  of  other  Comrnitlees — between  which  there  should  be  the  utmost 
readiness  to  confer,  for  the  sake  of  mutual  information  and  advice,  but  with  no 
power  either  to  overrule  one  another's  decisions  or  to  intromit  with  one  another's 
fut;d!5.  Nothing  could  exceed  the  regularity  and  right  working  of  this  mechanism 
in  the  old  Assembly;  whereas  the  system  of  dovetailing  and  complicating  the 
committees  with  each  other,  has  not  only  the  immediate  effect  of  confusing;  every 
thing;  hut  in  its  tendencies  and  final  outgoings  would  place  the  whole  business 
of  the  Church  in  the  hands  of  a  small  ecclesiastical  oligarchy.  J  exceedmgly 
grieve  to  find  that  many  are  yet  so  insensible  to  practical  evils  which  even  in 
our  brief  course  have  been  so  often  experienced  from  this  cause,  and  ought  to  be 
vigorously  and  instantly  redressed. 

Before  quilting  the  subject  of  this  article,  let  me  state  as  minutely  as  I  can  the 


W»  APPENDIX. 

respective  influences  for  good,  and  for  evil;  first,  of  the  system  under  whifli  each 
locality  receives  as  it  gives;  and  secondly,  of  the  system  under  which  there  is 
placed  full  before  the  view  of  each  locality  from  the  outset,  the  share  that  will 
fail  to  it,  when  once  admitted  among  the  ordained  charges,  of  a  prospective  uni- 
versal equal  dividend. 

1.  Let  the  locality  in  question  be  some  plebeian  district  of  a  lar^e  town,  or  some 
recent  manufacturing  village,  chiefly  made  up  of  utter  aliens  from  the  gospel ; 
there,  with  the  exception  of  school  fees,  little  or  nothing  can  be  expected,  at  the 
outset,  from  the  co-operation  of  their  own  payments.  The  necessary  advances 
will  have  to  be  made  in  the  first  instance  by  a  voluntaryism  ab  extra,  though  it 
need  not  to  be  long  ere  that  the  voluntaryism  ah  intra  is  brought  into  action.  This, 
indeed  may  begin  so  soon  as  a  Sabbath  service  is  instituted,  with  the  customary 
oflTerings  at  the  door;  but  the  great  and  decisive  epoch  of  its  operations  is  when, 
after  a  sufficient  nucleus  has  been  obtained  for  the  future  regular  congregation,  a 
District  Association  is  set  up  for  weekly  contributions,  and  these  placed  in  the 
custody  and  for  the  purposes  specified  in  the  body  of  our  pamphlet.  The  Associa- 
tion has  only  to  be  well  worked,  and  it  will  do  wonders.  The  wholesome  habit  of 
lending  a  helping  hand  themselves  to  the  good  work  will  take  root  amone  the 
families.  Themselves  will  be  astonished  to  find  how  much  they  can  do  for  the 
payment  first,  it  may  be,  of  their  own  catechist,  then  of  their  own  probationer,  nay, 
towards  the  erection  of  their  own  church;  last  of  all,  for  the  support  of  their  own 
minister;  and  they  ought  to  be  provided  with  one  so  soon  as  they  can  raise  two- 
thirds  of  i^lOO  a-year.  But  they  need  not  stop  there.  So  great  is  our  faith  in  the 
capabilities  and  willingness  of  our  people  under  such  a  process  as  we  are  now 
describing,  that  it  were  no  marvel  to  us  though  they  should  raise  the  whole  jCIOO 
themselves,  so  as  to  obtain  for  their  minister,  at  our  present  rate  of  one  and  a-half 
more,  £1.50  a-year,  and  yield  him  a  good  supplement  to  the  btrgain.  With  what 
delight  would  our  aid-giving  Associations  push  forward  their  liberalities,  if  sure 
that  for  every  £.50  additional  to  their  present  annual  contribution,  they  gained  a 
distinct  parochial  economy  amon?  our  former  out-field  population.  Church  exten- 
sion would  proceed,  with  rapid  strides,  from  one  territory  to  another,  under  such 
a  procedure  as  this,  till  all  the  spiritual  destitution  of  our  land  were  at  length  over- 
taken. 

2.  But  try  the  other  way  of  it,  and  as  yet  we  have  been  doing  little  better  with 
our  out-field  operations.  Let  the  people  among  whom  we  work  be  confirmed  in 
their  sordidness  and  lethargy  by  the  imagination  that  all  is  to  be  done  for  them, 
and  that  little  or  nothing  is  expected  from  themselves.  Let  the  rudimental 
education,  under  which  they  are  made  to  pass,  be  one  of  selfishness,  instead 
of  considerate  regard  fijr  the  necessities  of  a  Church  that  has  to  provide  for  other 
places  and  other  people  beside  their  own.  Above  all,  let  the  prospect  of  an  equal 
dividend  he  held  out  to  vitiate  both  the  parties  concerned;  lulling  the  people  into 
apathy,  and,  perhaps,  tainting,  by  a  most  unworthy  motive,  the  he'art  of  him  whose 
predotuinant  impulse  to  his  work,  as  an  ecclesiastical  labourer,  should  be  an  affec- 
tion for  human  souls.  Last  of  all,  let  it  be  found,  when  the  measure  of  its  full  ad- 
mission as  a  regular  charge  comes  to  be  agitated,  that  it  cannot  be  done  but  at  the 
expense  of  nearly  its  wliole  up-keeping  to  the  General  Fund  of  the  Church  ; 
and  then  we  may  well  imaginp,  with  the  indisposition  of  aid-givers  to  do  all  if  aid- 
receivers  are  to  do  nothing,  with  what  slowness  Church-extension  will  proceed,  or 
rather,  with  what  certainty  it  will  soon  be  brought  to  a  dead  stand.  A  process  so 
impure  in  its  earlier  stage,  and  landing  in  such  a  burdensome  result,  neither  will 
nor  should  go  prosperously  forward.  And  yet,  such  is  the  mistiness  and  confusion 
of  ideas  upon  this  subject,  that  people  will  ask.  How  can  extension  go  on  without 
the  encouragement  of  an  equal  dividend?  With  the  encouragement  of  the  one  and 
a-half  more  we  can  make  way;  but  with  the  equal  dividend  we  shall  never  make 
way,  at  least  throughout  the  dense  and,  as  yet,  unexplored  masses  of  our  increas- 
ing towns  and  newly-sprung-up  villages.  A  wedge  is  employed  for  penetration; 
but  it  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world,  thoiisjli  not  greater  than  the  difl'er- 
ence  between  the  two  methods  which  we  are  now  comparing,  whether  we  shall 
present  the  fi'ne  or  the  blunt  edge  of  it. 


APPENDIX.  Bt 

No.  IX. 

On  the  Prospects  of  Voluntaryism.     Sec.  VII.  §  2. 

I  thoucrht  it  possible  ihat  among  the  other  slight  articles  which  compose  this 
Appendix,  and  which  I  am  forced  to  write  calamo  currente,  I  might  have  had  some 
space  for  a  few  thoughts  on  the  subject  of  the  present  one.  I  can  afford  to  say  no 
more  than  that  my  hopes  of  an  extended  Christianity  from  the  efforts  of  Volun- 
taryism alone  have  not  been  brightened  by  my  experience  since  the  Disruption. 
This  is  no  reason  why  we  should  seek  an  alliance  with  the  State  by  a  compromise 
of  the  Church's  spiritual  independence;  and  still  less  with  a  government,  which 
on  the  question  of  endowments,  disclaims  all  cognizance  of  the  merits  of  that 
religion  on  which  it  confers  support,  and  makes  no  distinction  between  the  true 
and  the  false,  between  the  scriptural  and  the  unscriptural.  Still,  it  may  be  a  heavy 
misfortune,  it  may  prove  a  great  moral  calamity,  when  a  Government  does  lall 
into  what,  speaking  in  the  terms  of  my  own  opinion,  I  hold  to  be  the  dereliction 
of  a  great  and  incumbent  duty.  And  ere  I  am  satisfied  that  Voluntaryism  will 
repair  the  mischief,  I  must  first  see  the  evidences  of  its  success  in  making  head 
against  the  fearfully  increased  heathenism,  and  increasing  still,  that  accumulates 
at  so  fast  a  rate  throughout  the  great  bulk  and  body  of  the  common  people.  We 
had  better  not  say  too  much  on  the  pretensions  or  the  powers  of  Voluntaryism, 
till  we  have  made  some  progress  in  reclaiming  the  wastes  of  ignorance  and  irre- 
ligion  and  profligacy  which  so  overspread  our  land  ;  or  till  we  see  whether  the 
congregational  selfishness  which  so  predominates  every  where,  can  be  prevailed 
on  to  make  larger  sacrifices  for  the  Christian  good  of  our  general  population. 
Should  their  degeneracy  increase  to  the  demolition,  at  length,  of  the  present 
frame- work  of  society,  and  this  in  spite  of  all  that  the  most  zealous  Voluntaryism 
can  do  to  withstand  it,  it  will  form  a  most  striking  experimental  demonstration  of 
the  vast  importance  of  Christian  Governments  for  the  Christian  good  of  the  world. 
The  lights  of  experience  and  prophecy  will  be  found  to  harmonize,  when,  after 
what  may  be  called  the  horrors  of  the  middle  passage,  the  desolating  flood  of 
anarchy  and  misrule  that  is  coming  upon  the  earth,  the  Millennium  will  at  length 
emerge  from  it;  but  that,  in  conjunction  therewith,  the  kingdoms  of  the  world 
shall  become  the  kingdoms  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ;  or,  in  other 
words,  the  Governments  of  the  world  shall  all  be  Christianized. 

It  seems  very  clear  that  internal  Voluntaryism  will  not,  of  itself,  do  all,  and, 
with  all  the  vaunted  prosperity  of  the  Free  Church,  we  do  not  find  that  external 
Voluntaryism  will  either  make  up  the  deficiencies  of  the  former,  or,  still  less,  of 
itself,  do  all  either.  If  the  two  can  be  made  so  to  act  and  react  as  to  stimulate, 
rather  than  check  and  discourage  each  other,  a  better  result  might  be  obtained 
than  we  yet  have  arrived  at;  and,  for  this  purpose,  it  calls  for  the  highest  wis- 
dom of  the  Church  to  relate  these  two  elements  or  agents  aright  to  each  other. 
It,  I  trust,  is  pretty  obvious  now  that,  under  the  system  of  an  equal  dividend,  it  is 
tiie  imagined  sufficiency  of  the  external  which  keeps  our  internal  Voluntaryism  so 
miserably  low  in  more  than  half  our  congregations;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
provoking  exhibition  of  so  much  apathy  and  selfishness  must  inevitably,  sooner  or 
later,  cool  and  alienate  our  aid-giving  congregations,  till  an  arrest  be  laid  on  the 
further  increase  of  external  Voluntaryism.  Under  the  system  of  getting  as  they 
give,  the  very  reverse  of  this  takes  place.  The  internal  puts  forth  its  most  strenu- 
ous efforts  that  it  might  share  as  largely  as  possible  of  the  external;  and,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  external  rejoices  in  fostering  and  calling  out  the  internal  to  do  its 
uttermost. 

Should  both  together,  however,  fall  short,  and  there  is  too  much  reason  to  ap- 
prehend this,  both  from  the  selfishness  and  the  short-sightedness  which  prevail 
amongst  us,  then  must  we  lay  our  account  with  an  untouched  mass  of  heathenism, 
both  in  large  towns  and  in  many  other  places  of  the  land.  And  so  the  argument 
for  State  endowments,  if  only  given  on  a  right  principle,  will  stand  thus:  Are  the 
thousands  and  the  tens  of  thousands  whom  Voluntaryism,  with  all  its  efforts,  and, 
we  may  well  add,  with  all  Us  high-sounding  pretensions,  have  failed  to  overtake, 
are  they  to  be  sacrificed  to  an  impotent  and  most  inoperative  theory — a  theory  tried 
in  all  its  forms,  and  most  palpably  found  wanting'? 
6 


•9  APPENDIX. 

We  rejoice,  therefore,  in  the  testimony  of  the  Free  Churcli  fur  the  principle  of  a 
JValional  Esiablishinenl,  and  most  sincerely  do  we  hope  that  she  will  never  fall 
away  from  it.  Little  do  those  of  her  enemies,  who,  at  the  same  time,  are  the 
friends  of  loyalty  and  order — (for,  besides  these,  we  can  rank  many  of  tiie  turbu- 
lent and  disaffected  in  society  as  among  the  deadliest  of  her  enemies) — little  do 
they  know,  that  the  Free  Church  is,  at  this  moment,  lifting  a  far  more  influential 
testimony  on  the  side  of  ecclesiastical  endowments,  than  can  possibly  be  given  in 
any  other  quarter  of  society.  Hers  is  a  wholly  disinterested  testimony  in  their 
tavuur,  for  she  reaps  no  advantage  from  them;  but,  sorely  aggrieved  thi  ugh  she 
has  been  by  our  rulers,  she  will  neither  underrate  the  importance  of  their  friend- 
ship, nor  yet  the  solemn  obligation  whicii  lies  upon  them  to  care  for  the  religion 
of  the  people,  and  to  provide  within  their  sphere  for  this  best  and  highest  interest 
of  the  commonwealth. 

There  is  a  saying  of  the  King  of  Prussia  quoted  by  my  friend  Dr.  D'Aubigne, 
and  strangely  rejoiced  in  by  our  Continental  Voluntaries  in  support  of  their  sys- 
tem. The  King  puts  the  question.  What  were  my  duty  to  my  mother  if  she  were 
a  slave?  and  his  reply  is — Emancipate  her.  Were  it  not  his  farther  duty  to  sup- 
port her?  or  does  he  acquit  himself  of  all  he  owes  to  her  by  simply  giving  her 
liberty,  and  then  leaving  her  to  starve"?  Were  it  not  wrong  to  withliold  from  her 
the  requisite  maintenance]  Just  as  wrong  as  to  give  her  the  maintenance,  and, 
as  the  price  of  it,  take  away  from  her  the  liberty.  This  last  is  the  wrong  that  hag 
been  done  by  the  British  Government  to  the  Church  of  Scotland,  to  escape  from 
which  470  of  her  ministers  came  out  at  the  Disruption,  though  in  so  doing,  they 
had  to  encounter  and  submit  to  another  wrong,  even  the  spoliation  of  what  waa 
most  rightfully  and  constitutionally  theirs. 

No.  X. 

Conclusion — The  Avthor^s  view  of  what  should  he  the  state  of  the  Chtirch''s 
outward  Business  for  the  following  twelvemonth. 

We  have  no  wish  for  the  instant  adoption  of  any  material  change,  saving  for  a 
more  efficient  agency,  and  more  especially  for  paid  visitors  who  might  transact 
personally  between  the  Edinburgh  Committees,  and  all  the  places  in  Scotland 
where  their  services  might  be  available  for  the  good  of  the  Free  Church;  which  is 
no  other  than  the  best  and  highest  good  of  all  our  families.  VVilh  this  exception, 
we  should  be  happy  if  things  were  allowed  to  remain  as  they  are  till  the  Assembly 
ot'1847;  provided  that  the  following  suggestion  wereacted  on,  a  suggestion  whicli 
I  owe  to  a  closely  related  friend  of  my  own;  and  to  whom  I  also  stand  indebted 
tor  the  first  suggestion  which  led  to  the  memorable  Convocation  of  November, 
1842.  an  event  which  both  in  itself  and  in  its  consequences  is  one  of  the  greatest 
that  ever  took  place  in  the  ecclesiastical  annals  of  Scotland. 

The  suggestion  is  simply  this:  That  the  Assembly  of  1S46  should  appoint  a 
committee,  made  up  of  real  business  men,  with  a  very  small  proportion  of  eccle- 
siastics; and  who,  after  a  lengthened,  and  deliberate,  and  comprehensive  survey 
of  the  whole  matter,  might  rpport  to  us  next  year  their  well-inatured  opinion,  both 
as  to  the  best  way  of  raising  the  Church's  funds,  and  as  to  the  best  and  fittest 
method  for  the  distribution  of  them.  So  large  a  pecuniary  concern,  approaching 
to  nearly  a  hundred  thousand  pounds  in  the  year,  and  implicated  with  an  object  so 
mighty  as  the  moral  and  religious  well-being  of  Scotland — we  say,  that  an  interest 
of  such  extent  and  magnitude  as  this,  should  not  be  left  at  the  mercy  of  every 
random  conception  which  might  occur  on  a  single  and  superficial  glance  to  any 
hasty  observer;  but  should  be  committed  to  the  judgment  and  experience  of  men 
who  are  conversant  in  the  affairs  of  life,  and  can  look  with  a  practised  eye  both  to 
the  connections  and  the  consequences  of  any  arrangeinent  that  might  be  proposed. 
Let  us  wait  patiently  for  the  well-weighed  deliverance  of  such  men  as  these;  and, 
meanwhile,  let  all  our  Associations,  placed  under  their  surveillance,  and  vigilantly 
looked  to  in  all  their  workings  by  able  inspectors  so  well  qualified  to  appreciate 
and  distinguish  between  the  com'mendably  cfticient  and  the  culpably  remiss— let 
these  Associations  feel  and  act  as  il'  put  on  their  good  behaviour;  and  then,  with 
the  blessing  of  God,  wc  predict,  with  all  confidence,  that  by  May,  1647,  they  will 


APPENDIX.  83 

have  made  full  proof  of  their  sufficiency  for  suptainir.g  and  perpetuating-  a  machinery 
adequate  to  all  the  religious  and  all  the  ecclesiastical  necessities  of  our  people. 

I'he  above  paraoraphs  were  written  last  year,  the  change  being  only  made  now 
from  the  years  1845  and  1846  to  1646  and  1847.  But  the  suggestion  has  been  mis- 
understood, and  so  the  matter  was  devolved  on  the  J?ustentation  Committee,  where,  I 
am  told,  it  was  agitated  at  a  large  general  meeting,  tiie  worst  kind  of  body,  we  do 
not  say  for  finally  deciding,  but  certainly  for  preparing  a  complex  arithmetical 
scheme,  made  up  of  many  details,  and  involving  many  and  various  considerations.  It 
is  only  a  small  and  very  select  committee  which  can  rightly  make  their  way  to  such 
a  scheme.  It  should  be  then  long  and  in  many  ways  before  the  Free  Church  pub- 
lic, and  subject  to  the  amendments  and  modifications  that  might  be  proposed  from 
all  quarters,  ere  it  shall  be  definitely  adopted  by  the  General  Assembly.  We  can- 
not imagine  a  more  admirable  mechanism  for  a  process  like  this,  than  that  which 
is  supplied  by  the  Church  courts  of  our  Presbyterian  constitution,  when  any  meas- 
ure for  permanent  regulation  is  committed  to  the  ordeal  of  the  Barrier  Act.  We  have 
no  fear  that  once  the  manifold  lights  of  free  and  full  discussion  have  shone  upon 
the  question  in  all  parts  of  the  Church,  the  returns  from  Presbyteries  will  evince  a 
very  general  and  harmonious  understanding  of  what  is  best. 

Though  this  proposed  Committee  should  have  its  sittings  in  the  Metropolis,  It 
ought  to  have  one  or  two  members  from  other  places,  and  more  Especially  from 
Glasgow,  It  is  by  no  moans  indispensable  that  they  should  be  selected  from  the 
members  of  Assembly  ;  for  did  we  confine  ourselves  to  these,  we  should  be  cut  off 
from  the  services  of  some  of  the  wisest  business  heads  and  best  business  habits  in 
all  Scotland.  My  reason  for  suggesting  even  so  much  as  one  ecclesiastic  is,  that 
they  may  assign  certain  good  general  objects  which  might  not  so  readily  occur  to 
men  of  another  profession,  though  these  be  the  fittest  for  devising  the  pecuniary 
means  by  which  they  might  be  provided  for.  Certain  it  is  that  none  who  stand 
publicly  committed  to  any  particular  view  should  be  allowed  to  have  a  share  in 
them — however  desirable  it  be  that  both  they  and  all  others  should  be  encouraged 
to  give  their  respective  proposals  or  schemes  for  the  consideration  of  such  a  Com- 
mittee as  we  have  ventured  to  recommend. 

We  cannot  figure  a  more  egregious  absurdity  than  to  speak  of  the  Church  being 
committed  to  any  particular  scheme,  or  to  any  part  of  one,  as,  for  example,  an  equal 
dividend.  She  is  not  more  pledged  to  give  out  an  equal  dividend  to  all  ministers, 
than  she  is  to  take  in  no  more  than  a  penny  a  week  from  all  contributors.  When 
the  system  of  our  present  Associations  was  first  expounded,  the  demonstration  of 
their  power  was  grounded  on  the  hypothesis  of  a  penny  a  week,  from  each  mem- 
ber, on  which,  as  the  base  line  of  our  calculation,  we  stated  how  much  could  thus 
be  allowed  to  each  minister.  We  can  imagine  nothing  more  ruinous  than  to 
ground  upon  this,  not  only  a  present  but  a  prospective  claim  to  an  equal  dividend 
in  all  time  coming.  And  yet  we  hear  as  if  an  equal  dividend  were  the  radical 
principle  of  the  scheme.  The  radical  principle  of  our  scheme  is  the  power  of 
littles;  and  it  is  to  the  practical  disregard  or  reversal  of  this  that  all  our  difficul- 
ties are  owing.  It  is  because  of  the  confidence  which  our  aid-receiving  Associa- 
tions have  in  great  sums,  and  not  in  small  sums;  in  the  hundreds  raised  in  Edin- 
burgh and  Glasgow,  instead  of  the  pennies  which  ought  to  be  raised  not  from 
wretched  minorities,  but  from  the  great  bulk  and  body  of  their  own  congregations, 
it  is  because  of  this  that  the  Free  Church  moves  at  so  slow  a  pace  among  the  out- 
fields of  our  land.  Would  they  but  generalize  their  contributions  till  it  became  a 
universal  habit  that  each  should  give  something,  it  might  enable  us  to  progress  at 
a  greatly  faster  rate  than  we  are  doing. 

It  is  my  confidence  in  the  power  of  these  Associations  when  well  worked,  which 
leads  me  to  befriend  the  idea  of  admitting  our  Free  Church  teachers  to  a  share  in 
the  Sustentation  Fund,  This  is  quite  a  topic  for  the  deliberation  of  our  proposed 
Committee,  But,  meanwhile,  had  our  coming  Assembly  but  the  faith  and  cour- 
age to  venture  on  an  experimental  year,  it  would  mightily  enlighten  the  question, 
and  I  fondly  hope  would  supply  a  powerful  impulse  for  the  enlargement  of  our 
cause.  For  the  idea  of  some  such  process  as  the  following,  I  am  indebted  to  a 
very  able  and  energetic  friend.  Let  the  Sustentation  Fund  be  kept  entire  for  the 
ministers  till  their  dividend  reached  £100  a-year,  Aiterwards,  let  the  increase 
upon  this  be  alloted  to  the  schoolmasters  to  the  extent  of  £25  a  year.  Then  what- 
ever ulterior  increase  might  accrue,  let  it  be  shared  in  the  proportion  of  four  to 


64  APPENDIX. 

one  between  the  two  parties.  It  were  no  surprise  to  me,  however  Utopian  it 
might  appear  to  others,  ihat  under  the  new  influence  which  such  a  system  would 
create  and  keep  in  action,  there  would  speedily  result  a  dividend  of  £200  for  eacli 
minister,  and  j£50  for  each  schoolmaster  throughout  the  vast  majority  of  our  church, 
while  the  inferior  provisions  made  for  those  who  are  under  the  rule  of  getting  as 
they  give,  would  rapidly  tend  upwards  to  this  maximum.  We  have  no  sympathy 
with  those  who  think  that  we  are  aspiring  at  a  maximum  which  is  too  large,  feeling 
as  we  do  that  all  public  functionaries,  and  more  especially  the  functionaries,  of  edu- 
cation, are  greatly  underpaid.  Little  are  our  aid-receiving  Associations  aware 
how  much  they  stand  in  the  way  of  high  interests.  O,  that  they  had  more  of  the 
spirit  of  the  Apostle,  who  told  the  elders  of  Ephesus,  that  his  own  hands  minis- 
tered to  his  own  necessities;  and  adduced  the  precious  saying  of  our  Saviour,  tha«t 
it  was  more  blessed  to  give  than  to  receive ! 


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